


Someone Else's Starr

by januarylily



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-19 06:37:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9422780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/januarylily/pseuds/januarylily
Summary: Tatum Starr's world is turned upside down when her parents are killed in a car crash forcing her to live in Beacon Hills with her aunt Melissa and cousin Scott. She knew that her mother would tell her to look at it as a new adventure, but she wasn't exactly optimistic about things. God, life just sucked sometimes.





	1. Prologue

July 2, 2010

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. A trembling teenage girl dressed in a lacy black dress clutched a handful of dirt as tears freely flowed down her cheeks. She couldn't do it. She couldn't let go. Not yet. In a matter of days, Tatum Starr's life had been turned upside down. Both her parents died in a hit-and-run accident with a suspected drunk driver, her boyfriend since middle school dumped her, and in a few days she was moving to live with her aunt and cousin in Beacon Hills, California. Her cousin, dressed in a black button-up shirt and slacks stepped beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him with tears shining in her eyes.

"Tay." Scott gave her a gentle smile as he used her childhood nickname. She slowly nodded her head before she dropped the handful of dirt on top of her father's casket. Goodbye, she thought.

Tatum then turned around and stared down at the hole where mother's casket had been lowered. If saying goodbye to her father had been that hard, then saying goodbye to her mother was going to be unbearable. Her mother had been everything to her—her best friend, her partner in crime, and her biggest supporter. The woman was probably the most perfect human being on the planet and now she was gone. Tatum was now alone in this world—well, mostly alone. She had her aunt and her cousin, but still—things kinda sucked. She knew that her mother would tell her to look at it as life's new adventure, but she didn't inherit her mother's sense of optimism. If only one could turn back time and change things…but she couldn't and there was no use wishing she could do so. No, she had to move on. So, she dropped the dirt on her mother's casket before turning toward her cousin and crying on his shoulder. God, life just sucked sometimes.

The time from the cemetery back home was a blur. The only thing Tatum vaguely remembered was walking up the steps to her home practically clinging to her cousin's arm with tears streaming down her face. That was it and next thing she knew, she was home. A home that would no longer be hers. Tomorrow, this house would cease to be the Starr family home. Minnesota would no longer be her state. Life had slipped the rug out from underneath her and left her head spinning. Not only had she lost her parents, but she felt as if she were losing her identity as well.

The feeling was so overwhelming that she escaped to her boxed-up bedroom upstairs despite the group of people gathering downstairs for the wake. Tatum did a belly flop onto her bed before burying her face in the mountain of pillows and stuffed animals she had accumulated. She didn't want this. She didn't want any of this. She wanted everything to go back to normal. For her parents to pop out of the closet and tell her that she had been Punk'd. She lay still for a moment, hopeful that it could happen, but the moment never came. Instead, there was a gentle knock at her door.

Tatum rolled over to see Scott walking into her room, shoving his tie in his pocket. "That thing's a pain in the ass," Scott said about his tie as he plopped down onto her bed beside her. He situated himself for a moment to make himself comfortable. The cousins sat there for a few moments in what seemed like perfect silence. It was a comfortable silence-a nice lull in the slew of emotions from that day.

Tatum propped herself up by her elbows as she stared at her cousin whose eyes were closed as if he were about to sleep. Scott was a little over two months older than her and their mothers had been pregnant together. Tatum peeked over at her dresser for a moment to see a photograph of their pregnant mothers together. Melissa McCall and Maggie Starr had been sisters. The words had been made Tatum's heart sink as she rolled onto her back, lying beside her cousin staring up at those stupid glow-in-the-dark stars she had insisted be put up there when she was six. Scott rolled over to talk to her, but came face to face with one of her stuffed animals. He quickly picked it up and held a brief staring contest with the green plush toy before turning to his younger cousin.

"What the hell is this?" Scott asked.

"Don't listen to him Perry the Platypus," Tatum cooed as she reached over and snatched Perry from Scott's grasp. She snuggled Perry up to her face and for the first time since her parents' deaths, she actually gave her cousin a slight smile. "You should probably apologize to him."

"To a stuffed animal?"

"Sh! He can hear you, you know." Tatum placed her hands over the spot that would make sense for his ears to be. Scott chuckled and shook his head before muttering an apology to Perry the Platypus, making his cousin smile again. But her smile was quickly replaced by a solemn look. It was too soon for smiling, wasn't it? She was supposed to be in mourning. "What are you doing up here, Scott?"

"I thought you could use some company." Scott shrugged his shoulders as his cousin gave him a look that she didn't completely buy his story. He rolled his eyes before confessing, "and I didn't want to deal with all the people down there. I'm half expecting my mom to come up and tell us that we're being anti-social."

"We're being anti-social with each other which is being social, right? Besides, I'm not really in the mood to socialize with people I'm probably never going to see again at a wake for my parents. All those people telling me how sorry they are for my loss—it's annoying. I mean, I'm not up to date on social etiquette as far as funerals are concerned but you and Aunt Melissa are the only ones to have gotten me a card. Grandma Starr could probably open a Hallmark with how many cards she's gotten. God, what kind of horrible person does that make me? I'm freaking jealous of my grandmother over how many cards she's gotten."

"It's weird to think of you having another family that you belong to." Tatum cocked an eyebrow at her coousin. That was what all Scott had to say about her grand confession? But she let it slide. He was probably just as tired as she was from packing everything up. He and Melissa had helped her pack up most of the house.

"If it makes you feel better, I never really felt like I fit in with the Starrs. Daddy was an oops baby, so my cousins on that side are really old. Like the closest one to my age is eight years older than me."

"Sorry."

"Yeah," Tatum sighed before things returned to silence. She was never sure exactly what to say when somebody apologized. They lay there without talking again, although it wasn't an awkward silence. It was what it was.

Tatum felt her bed vibrate and felt her person for a moment only to realize that she didn't have any pockets on her dress, so it couldn't possibly be her phone. Instead, Scott pulled his phone out of his slacks. Tatum caught a glimpse of the name Stiles which caused her to shake her head as her cousin texted his best friend back. She had met Stiles Stilinski on the few occasions she had visited Beacon Hills, but she didn't exactly like him. She didn't quite hate him—but she didn't like him. Mostly because of the stupid nickname he had come up for her. The very thought of the name made her roll her eyes.

Tatum sat up and reached across Scott for her own phone which sat on her bedside table. She was disappointed to see that no one had texted her, not even her so-called friends. Moments later Melissa was at the door with red, puffy eyes from crying. She told Scott and Tatum that they should go downstairs and mingle a bit…or at least eat some food and pretend they were socializing. At the very thought of food, Scott was on his feet and practically pulling his cousin out of her bed.

When Tatum was on her feet, Melissa walked over and tightly hugged her niece. For a moment, Tatum thought it was her mother hugging her—but reality took over and she began to softly cry on her aunt's shoulder. "I miss them so much."

"I miss them too, sweetie," Melissa whispered gently rocking Tatum before motioning with her head for Scott to head downstairs. Scott nodded his head and quickly exited the room as Melissa continued to hold onto the teenage girl she had agreed to take in. Tatum had tried so hard to hold things together, but her walls finally crashed and she couldn't explain why. It was like the dam inside her broke and there was nothing she could do about it. Melissa pushed a tendril of hair behind Tatum's ear before whispering, "We're going to get through this. I promise."

One week later…

Tatum sat on the couch in a tank top and sweatpants with her hair up in a messy bun watching TV. She really hadn't done much since moving to Beacon Hills besides watch TV or mope upstairs in her new room, which she still hadn't started unpacking. She took a swig of cream soda before she set the bottle down on the coaster on the coffee table. It was still summer break and there wasn't really anything good on TV in the daytime, but she yet she still watched whatever annoying talk show to distract herself—especially when she was alone. Aunt Melissa was working at the hospital and Scott caught an early shift at the animal clinic, leaving her alone in an empty house. She knew she should be outside soaking in the California sun, but she really had no desire to do so.

Her phone buzzed. So, she picked it up to see that Aunt Melissa had texted her to see if she was doing okay. She knew that her aunt and cousin were both trying hard to make her feel at home, both of them knowing that it wasn't going to be the same. Tatum's mother's words rang through her head about this being life's next adventure as she texted her aunt back that she was fine. She even added a smiley face for effect. The sound of the front door opening and closing echoed through the house. Tatum didn't think anything of it—she just assumed that Scott had gotten off of work early, but moments later she was proved wrong.

"Tater Tot, long time no see." Tatum didn't even have to turn to see who that annoying voice belonged to. She knew that it belonged to Stiles simply from the stupid nickname. With an evil glare on her face she turned to look at him as he stood at the end of the couch with a goofy grin on his stupid face.

"Don't call me Tater Tot," Tatum said through gritted teeth which didn't really seem to affect Stiles as he plopped his butt onto the couch beside her. So she repeated herself. "I said don't call me Tater Tot."

"You're the one who had tater tots up her nose. Hence, the nickname."

"Because you're the one that shoved them up there!"

"Yeah, that was pretty awesome." Stiles shook his head at Tatum's death glare. He looked at her for a moment before trying to change the subject. He pointed to the television. "So, what are we watching? Looks riveting."

"We're not watching anything." Tatum tossed the remote in Stiles lap before she finished her bottle of cream soda and headed upstairs, not even waiting for Stiles comeback. She really didn't want anything to do with him right now…or ever if she had her way. But she knew that he was her cousin's best friend and that interacting with him was inevitable. Right now though, she didn't have to spend time with him if she didn't want to.

She heard the channel change before she opened the door to her room and did a running start for her bed. Her bed seemed to be her safe place these days and Perry the Platypus her protector. There were no picture frames of her family decorating her walls, no ribbons or medals, nothing that would remind her of her past life. Instead the boxes which she had labeled "Tatum's shit" sat stacked against the wall. She knew Aunt Melissa wanted her to put stuff away and feel more at home, but she had no motivation to do so. Like right now for example, a nap seemed to be the better option. Tatum closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

Sometime later, Scott actually came home to find Stiles sitting in his living room scrolling through his cousin's phone. He snatched Tatum's phone from Stiles' grasp. Stiles somewhat freaked out as Scott gave him a knowing look. Scott asked his best friend where his cousin was and the only response he got was Stiles pointing upstairs. He motioned for his friend to follow him upstairs and the boys headed up. Scott saw his cousin asleep on her bed snuggling with Perry the Platypus and chuckled as he placed her phone on her bare bedside table. He then walked back to meet Stiles who was standing, leaning against the doorframe.

"How long is Tater Tot here for?" Stiles whispered as he stared straight ahead at the girl sprawled out on her bed. He didn't know her well and it had been years since her last visit. Sure he had picked on her when they were younger, but Scott did it first—so why couldn't he?

"I thought with her parents dying it was pretty obvious," Scott whispered back to Stiles who nodded his head. Stiles had figured as much in his head, but Scott hadn't really flat-out confirmed his speculation until now.

"Well, yeah—so she'll be coming back to school with us?" Stiles knew that Tatum was in their year at school, but maybe she was going to be homeschooled or something. No such luck.

"Yeah. You think you could play nice with her? I know you two haven't always gotten along in the past, but I mean you're probably the one who would…"

"Get it. Yeah. I get it."

"So you'll do it?"

"Hey, I'll play nice if she will."

Tatum listened as the boys finished walking to Scott's room and heard the door close before she sat up. She had been listening to their entire conversation outside her room, pretending to still be asleep. What did Scott mean by Stiles would understand? What could that dweeb possibly understand?

She rolled her eyes as she picked up her phone from the table beside her bed. She mentally cursed when she saw that her lock screen was now a picture of Stiles with a duck face. That dweeb had figured out the passcode to her phone. Thankfully, he didn't change it but her wallpaper was a different picture of Stiles wearing her aviator shades, that she had left downstairs. Damnit. This guy…but the surprise wasn't over just yet. No, she had a text message from a contact named Stiles the Great that said, "You're welcome."

As Tatum changed her screens back to normal, Aunt Melissa walked through the door downstairs and called "Pizza!" She must've come home on her break to feed her two teenagers. Well, three if you counted the fact that Stiles was over. Tatum turned to see the boys running past her room before she reluctantly stood up and followed them downstairs so that she wouldn't worry her aunt. By the time she got downstairs both boys were already chowing-down on the pizza. Melissa shook her head and walked over to her niece.

"Save some for Tay, boys," Melissa gently scolded.

Stiles picked up another piece of pizza and held it out toward Tatum who gave him a disgusted look. He simply shook his head and took a bite out of it. Tatum walked over and grabbed a slice of pizza before she sat down at the table across from the boys. Melissa came over and rubbed the side of her arm. So this was going to be her new life. She definitely wasn't in Minnesota anymore—but what she didn't realize was that in six months things were going to change…again.


	2. The Story Begins

Tatum Starr stared at the bulletin board over her desk as she set her cell phone down on her desk. Her room had become more personalized over the last six months. She had hung several pictures. One picture was of her parents, her with her aunt and cousin, and one that he had managed to sneak into. Tatum frowned. She was going to kill him.

Six months of living in Beacon Hills, California and about all she had to show for it was a stupid prank war with Stiles Stilinski. He had started the whole stupid thing with his childish antics, but she wasn't one for simply allowing him to get away with it. So she would retaliate and then he'd go and do something stupid again. But as much as she disliked the kid, Stiles was probably one of the only people in Beacon Hills that treated her normally and didn't attempt to walk on eggshells around her.

Her teachers would offer her extensions on things in case she couldn't concentrate. The lunch ladies would give her an extra dessert free of charge. The school librarian wouldn't charge her fines for overdue books. Honestly, it was probably the life that any teenager would envy, but it was also accompanied with whispers and stares in the hallway, fake apologies, and worst of all, no one honestly interacted with her. So, her social life mostly consisted of talking with her cousin and his idiotic friend. Hell, there were times when Scott got all weird around her, but for some reason Stiles didn't. He just remained the same dweeb he always was, which was oddly comforting.

Tatum blew a stray tendril of hair that had fallen out of her braid away from her face with a puff of air before getting up to go to the bathroom after a stressful phone call with Grandma Starr. Since Thanksgiving, the woman had been relentless in trying to get her to move back with her in Minnesota and for reasons Tatum didn't really know. Tatum had refused and continued to refuse the offer. Her grandmother claimed that she was concerned about Tatum not making friends—so when Grandma Starr asked about her friends, she lied. A decision she immediately regretted.

Tatum told her grandmother that her best friend's name was Stiles. She had face-palmed her herself after it had slipped out. But the only reason that name that popped out of her mouth was because she was pissed at him for his latest prank. Good lord. If Stiles ever found out, she would probably die of embarrassment. He would tease her mercilessly. It would be pure hell. But, it didn't pay to dwell on a hypothetical situation.

Tatum crossed the hallway from her bedroom and was about to open the door to the bathroom when she heard the window to Scott's room open. She raised an eyebrow in that direction. Curious. Diverting her original path, she walked over to her cousin's room to see him halfway out the window, which was not an uncommon occurrence.

"Scott," Tatum hissed as she stood in his doorway with her arms folded across her chest impatiently tapping her foot against the floor. Scott's head quickly flung back to glance at his cousin with a sheepish expression on his face as he sat on his window sill, a baseball bat in his hands.

"It's not what it looks like, Tay. I swear," Scott explained as his fingers combed through his messy hair with one hand, trying to play innocent in front of his cousin; but Tatum wasn't buying it.

"Really? It looks like you're sneaking out to go meet Stiles…with a baseball bat."

"Ok, so, it's exactly what it looks like." Scott sighed and Tatum raised an eyebrow and smirked at her cousin. She then crossed his somewhat messy room and sat on the windowsill beside him. She knew that he was worried about her tattling—but really, who was she going to tell? Besides, it was more to her advantage to hold it over his head as leverage if she ever needed anything from him—or at least that's what she reasoned in case it ever came up with her aunt why she didn't say anything if he got into trouble. Scott's concerned expression amused her. "So? What do you want?"

"Two things. First, beat Stiles with that bat for me and then tell him to go screw himself."

"What'd he do now?" Scott groaned, clearly growing tired of the prank war between his cousin and his best friend.

"Actually, no—just tell him to enjoy screwing himself one last time before I effing kill him, bring him back to life, and then kill him again."

"I'll—uh—see what I can do."

"Good and if you could please bring some ice cream home when you're done, it would be greatly appreciated," Tatum finished her request with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Scott just nodded his head before he slipped out the window to do god-knows-what with the dweeb.

The next morning, Aunt Melissa knocked on Tatum's door and told her that it was time to get up for school. Ugh. School was the last place she wanted to be right now. Then again, Tatum was probably what one would consider a homebody and school was not home. Slowly, she rolled out of bed and walked to the bathroom. She threw her hair up in a messy bun before reaching for her toothbrush. She was in the middle brushing her teeth when Scott appeared shirtless in the bathroom doorway with some sort of wound on his stomach.

"What happened to you, dude?" Tatum grumbled with her toothbrush hanging in her mouth and the toothpaste foam dripping down her chin.

"Nothing. It's nothing." Scott poked at his stomach and then grimaced in pain.

"Doesn't look like nothing. Did Stiles bite you when you went after him with that bat?" But Scott didn't say anything. Tatum rolled her eyes before she quickly spit out her toothpaste and wiped her face free of toothpaste with water. She then reached into the medicine cabinet and pulled out some ointment, gauze, and medical tape, setting them on the counter before turning to her cousin. "Either I can do it or you can."

"I got it."

"Alright. You don't have to be so crabby about it." Tatum then finished getting ready for the day, dressing in a yellow cardigan, a blue-green dress, and brown cowboy boots. She quickly scrunched her hair and grabbed a package of chocolate chip Poptarts, her backpack, and aviator shades before she sat by the door waiting for Scott to get his little butt downstairs. The cousins eventually made their way to Beacon Hills High School only to be greeted by Stiles himself.

"You little dweeb," Tatum hissed as she weaved through the mass of students toward Stiles.

"Good morning to you too, Tater Tot," Stiles grinned. Tatum was inches from getting in his face when Scott pulled her back.

"What the hell? I'm trying to kill him here."

"Later, I need to talk to Stiles about something," Scott sighed as he made sure to keep an arm on his cousin.

"About the little love bite he gave you last night?" Tatum looked between the boys. Scott's expression was to shake his head, but Stiles shocked reaction was priceless. Tatum raised her eyebrow at Stiles. "Yeah, that's right. I saw it."

"Tay, c'mon, can you give us a minute, please?"

"Fine. One minute, but you send him my way when you're done."

Knowing full-well that Stiles was going to go out of his way to avoid her, she walked into the school to wait in the hallway near their first class which they had together. Tatum leaned against the wall eating her Poptarts, trying to blend into the crowd. A crowd in which no one really paid her any attention. It really wasn't so bad. People watching was actually quite interesting. Although, it reminded her of the game she would play with her mother. "One. Two. Three." They had picked it up from Gilmore Girls. It was a stupid game to pick your husband. But it was really funny.

She decided to play it on her own. One. The first guy that passed her was Greenberg. Hell, no. Pass. Two...two...The next guy she spotted was Danny Māhealani. He played for the other team, so it wouldn't be fair for her to take him away from that. So three. She was stuck with whoever lucky guy number three happened to be. Tatum groaned when Stiles Stilinski was the third guy who came into her view. Ew. She would rather die.

Tatum cracked her neck and focused. It was time to take care of business. So as Stiles walked by, Tatum gripped Stiles' arm in a tight snake grip and dragged him into the bathroom. To say he was surprised would have been an understatement. Scott followed them in, but Tatum told him to go away while Stiles begged for him to stay. Scott shook his head before he walked out of the bathroom leaving Tatum with Stiles and two other guys who were at the urinal. One quickly escaped without washing his hands when Tatum glared at Stiles.

"Whoa, Tater Tot, can't you read? This is the boys' bathroom."

"Yes, I can read." Tatum had Stiles backed against the wall by his throat. A senior looked at them as he zipped up his pants. Stiles awkwardly nodded and waved while still being pinned against the wall. With her other hand, Tatum pulled her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled through her contacts—they had all been changed to Harry Potter characters, pictures included. Stiles refused to make eye contact with her as the biggest smirk grew across his face. Tatum shoved him hard once more before she took a few steps back from him and held her phone out toward him. "How about you?"

"I wondered how long that would take you. You know you really gotta quit leaving your phone lying around for anyone to find."

"I figured it out when Nagini called me last night and if I would've known who that was I wouldn't have answered." Stiles put his hand over his mouth and chuckled before faking a cough. "It's not funny. You gotta stop messing with my shit."

"It was pretty ingenious, though, you have to admit."

"Change it back."

"And if I told you I couldn't?" Stiles gave Tatum an innocent look as he patted the piece of paper in his pocket. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head. He wasn't about to tell her that he had written down all her contacts with the right numbers on the piece of paper in his pocket.

"Damnit. I hate you. You know that?" Tatum's phone vibrated in her hands which caused her to swear aloud. She looked at her phone and rolled her eyes. "Harry Potter wants to know if I've killed you yet." Stiles snickered. "Meaning Harry Potter is Scott. So who are you? Ron Weasley—Harry's sidekick? Although, Voldemort would make more sense for you."

"Nah—I'm Dobby, the awesome and loveable house-elf."

"Only if awesome and loveable are synonymous with unbelievably irritating and stupid. God, this is going to take forever to fix."

"It took forever to do in the first place," Stiles smirked as he folded his arms across his chest. Tatum responded with an angry sneer when the bell rang. "We should—uh—probably get to class."

"You think?" Tatum shoved her phone into the pocket of her jeans before she turned on her heel to walk out of the boys' bathroom. Stiles was right behind her as she walked out. One of the stoner seniors who was also late for class gave them a thumbs up. Tatum swore under her breath before she whacked Stiles in the arm. "You couldn't have waited ten seconds? Ten seconds?"

"What? We're going to the same place and you know that if we're more than five minutes late he gives detention."

Tatum rolled her eyes before she shoved him into a locker. Stiles made a comment about violence not being the answer; but Tatum retorted that it was always the answer when it came to him. He then pulled on her backpack causing it to tear and the contents to spill out. Stiles eyes widened as Tatum swore out loud. Both teenagers quickly began picking up all the crap that had fallen to the floor before they ran into the classroom to find all eyes on them.

"Miss Starr, Mr. Stilinski, how nice of you to grace us with your presence." The teacher stood at the board with chalk in his hands staring at them.

"I—uh—I got lost," Tatum said innocently, giving the teacher her best attempt at a smile

.

"In the boys' bathroom?" Stiles coughed. Tatum turned to give Stiles a death glare while the teacher informed them that they would both be spending lunch with him in detention. Tatum balled her fists as their teacher told them to find their seats. As they walked back to their seats, it was easily to tell that Scott was trying hard not to laugh at them.

Tatum clutched her broken backpack like she was carrying a baby, attempting to ignore her cousin as she sat at the desk beside him to his left. Scott nodded in her direction, but she held her head high and stared straight ahead at the board. She couldn't help but frown when she noticed Stiles slip into the seat behind her with her peripheral vision. Slowly she turned around and glared at him, but he shrugged his shoulders. Tatum questioned why he couldn't just take the desk behind Scott.

"What if he's gassy?" was the excuse Stiles gave. Tatum shook her head and turned back around to watch as the teacher began to write on the board and discuss the body found in the woods last night. It clicked for her then. Scott had gone with Stiles in search of the dead body. How mature? No doubt it was Stiles idea. How could it not have been? She thumbed through her syllabus for the class ignoring Scott, whom she thought was looking at her when he was actually looking out the window.

Minutes later the vice-principal walked through the door with an unfamiliar girl. The girl gave the class a nervous smile as the vice principal introduced her as Allison Argent. Scott could barely take his eyes of the new brunette girl. Tatum snapped her fingers in his face which brought him back to reality as Stiles snickered at the interaction.

The girl named Allison walked right toward their back corner of the room and sat in the desk behind Scott who was all grin as he turned around and handed her a pen. That was kinda weird, but Tatum didn't get to dwell on it long because Stiles leaned forward and whispered something about hopefully Scott wasn't actually gassy. She turned around and gave Stiles her best I'm gonna cut you look to which he responded by picking up his syllabus and hiding his face behind it. Out of nowhere, the guy in front of her in his letterman's jacket turned around and looked at her before actually talking to her.

"Hey new girl looks like you're not the new girl anymore." Tatum gave the guy two thumbs up before he turned around.

"His astute observation astounds me," Stiles whispered to her as he leaned forward on his desk causing Tatum to look over her shoulder at the annoyance.

"The fact that you're still breathing astounds me," Tatum muttered to herself which Scott must have heard because he gave her a look to cut it out. She simply smiled at him and looked at the clock, hoping that the bell would ring soon. Eventually, it did ring and Scott turned around to talk to Allison, but the new girl was already standing up and trying to get Tatum's attention. To be honest, Tatum was surprised by someone aside from Scott and Stiles seeking her out. Tatum blinked several times as Allison cleared her throat and Scott walked away with Stiles and a somewhat sad expression.

"Hey, I couldn't help but overhear—you used to be the new girl?" Allison asked sweetly. Tatum nodded her head as she tried to swing her backpack onto her back—forgetting it was broken—causing the contents to spill out of it for the second time that day. With a groan, she quickly bent down to pick up her things when the new girl started helping her. Allison handed Tatum a calculator with a slight smile. "You think we could form a new girl club or something?" Tatum didn't say anything as she finished shoving pencils in her bag. "That was a joke—but uh could you at least give me a clue where Spanish with Senora Mara is so I don't look like an idiot trying to figure out where I'm going?"

"I'm headed there too," Tatum responded as she stood up awkwardly holding her backpack.

"You can walk with me—if you want. Just as a heads-up, I'm basically a social recluse, so if you never talk to me again—I'll get it."

"Are you breaking up with me already?" Allison blinked slowly causing Tatum to throw her head back and groan. God, she was coming off completely wrong with the new girl. The new girl whom Scott already had a thing for. Speaking of Scott, he stood in the doorway watching them with a confused expression on his face.

"No. Oh god. I didn't mean for it to come off that way. I—I just wanted to be upfront and not have high expectations and…"

"Most people at least tell me their names before breaking up with me." With a horrified expression on her face, Tatum looked up at Allison to find the girl smiling. Tatum closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip for a moment.

"Can we start over?" Tatum begged Allison who was still smiling as she nodded her head. "Oh thank, god."

"Hi, I'm Allison Argent…new girl." Allison held out her hand for Tatum to grab, but Tatum awkwardly fumbled to hold her backpack and give a free hand to shake. Finally, she managed it.

"Hi, I'm Tatum Starr…completely awkward and come off like a bitch when I don't mean to, especially when meeting new people…former new girl." Tatum released Allison's hand and gave the girl an awkward smile to which the new girl responded with a chuckle. Allison shuffled the weight on her feet for a moment before she ran her fingers through her hair.

"I think I'll just call you Tatum if that's all right."

"Tatum's great. Well, I mean I'm not great—but calling me Tatum is great. God, I'm just embarrassing myself even more. No wonder I don't have any friends. Ugh. How about Spanish?"

With a smile on her face, Allison nodded her head and the girls maneuvered through the crowded halls to the foreign language wing. The girls sat in desks beside each other and compared schedules. It looked like they had several other classes together. It was probably the guidance department trying to force two new students to bond over being new. Go guidance!

Allison asked if Tatum would be willing to eat lunch with her, but Tatum had to refuse and explain the awkward and embarrassing situation of having to have a lunch detention with her cousin's best friend. She was quick to explain that it really wasn't some lame excuse to get rid of her but the honest truth. But Tatum promised to meet her after lunch detention for their afternoon classes. Allison smiled as Tatum wrote down her locker number on a piece of notebook paper before tearing it out. Tatum wasn't sure why she was reaching out to the new girl, but she was.

Lunch detention was awful—being forced to listen to Stiles eat and talk with his mouth full not only annoyed her but their English teacher. Not wanting to get another detention, Tatum reached over and smacked his arm and motioned with her finger over her mouth for him to shut up.

After what seemed like the longest day of school ever, she walked to her last class of the day with Allison. Mr. Kremer stood outside his door handing out his syllabus for Algebra 2 as they walked inside. Tatum and Allison found two empty seats toward the back of the room beside each other. As they sat down, Tatum couldn't help but feel that Allison was actually rather easy to talk to. She didn't want to get too far ahead of herself, but she could almost see herself actually making a friend—that she wasn't related to or friends with someone she was related to

.

"So, what's there to do around here?" Allison asked as she began to doodle over the Kremer's syllabus with the pen Scott had given her the class period before. Tatum had to think about it for a moment and her thinking expression made Allison chuckle. Tatum was just about to respond when a strawberry blonde girl turned around and began listing off the hangout places before finishing with a smile. That would be Lydia Martin. Tatum didn't know much about Lydia, aside from everything Stiles gushed about her. Lydia looked at them and smiled.

"New girl and…who are you?" Lydia looked at Tatum in confusion.

Of course she had only been at this school for half a year—why should Lydia know who she was? It wasn't like they had classes together last semester or anything. Allison was about to introduce her to Lydia when Tatum finally responded."Old new girl," Lydia's mouth formed an o, before she began talking to Allison again. Then out of nowhere a voice spoke from behind Tatum.

"And Stiles." Tatum's head quickly flung around to see Stiles swatting at her hair which had accidentally gone into his mouth. She reached for her hair and began wiping some of his slobber off the tips of her hair before she pushed Stiles syllabus to the floor. "What the hell was that for?"

"You've got to be kidding me. You're in here too?"

"Hey, you're the one who sat in front of me. I was here first."

"Does it look like I care? Move."

"Here's perfect, thanks."

"Perfect view of…" Stiles hands suddenly covered her mouth. Clearly, he didn't want her professing his infatuation with the girl in Algebra. So instead, she licked his hand causing it to release her mouth and fly to his pants to wipe off her saliva. Stiles muttered something about that being disgusting but Tatum could only smirk until she found Lydia and Allison watching her.

"What do you think, Tatum?" Lydia was staring straight at Tatum, blinking slowly waiting for a response. Tatum gave her a confused glance before she pointed to herself before looking around. "Yes, you, silly."

"I—uh. What were we talking about?" Tatum gave a smile as she pushed her hair behind her ear. Allison then explained that Lydia was talking about movies that were playing in the theater and asked if there were any Tatum wanted to see. Tatum mouthed the world oh again before she muttered something about wanting to see that one movie with the girl and the guy—which was vague enough for Lydia to pop in a movie title. Tatum widened her eyes to pretend that was the title she had been searching for. Lydia smiled and clapped her hands for getting it right. Mr. Kremer then walked in and called for the attention of his class. Tatum tried to pay attention, but she received a tap on the shoulder.

"Did Lydia just talk to you?" Stiles whispered. Tatum reached back and pushed the stuff off Stiles desk…again. Stiles groaned and practically flew out of his desk to try and catch his papers, gaining the attention of the entire class, except for Tatum.

"Mr. Stilinski, leaving already?" Mr. Kremer questioned. The class started to laugh at his expense and Tatum felt a twinge of guilt before concluding that he deserved it after the phone thing. Stiles quickly picked up his papers and sat back in his desk with his lips pursed tightly together, giving everyone a wave. It almost seemed as if he were enjoying the attention, but Tatum quickly realized it was because Lydia turned and saw him. Tatum didn't even have to turn around to know that Stiles was now busy tuning out algebra and tuning in Lydia Martin.

Finally, the bell for the end of the day rang causing a mass exodus of students from their classrooms. As she exited the door clutching her backpack, Tatum was about to turn right when Allison called her name. Allison was standing to the left of the classroom by Lydia's side. Tatum tried to explain that her locker was to the right, making it look like her backpack was too heavy, but Lydia interceded.

Lydia snapped her fingers at Stiles who was leaning against the wall staring at her. "You. Take her backpack." Tatum tried to tell Lydia that it wasn't necessary, but Stiles reached for her backpack. She tried to fight him for it, but it fell out of her arms to the floor. She groaned and was about to pick up her stuff…again, when Lydia told her not to bother. That he would take care of it. Tatum tried to argue, but Lydia wasn't going to have any of it.

Instead, she ended up walking down the hallway with Lydia and Allison. Tatum walked with her arms folded across her chest to the right of Allison when Lydia complimented her "Cute boots, Tatum." Tatum shook her head, unsure if she heard Lydia right. This was weird. It was as if Lydia was acting like they had always been friends, instead of having just talked for the first time like an hour ago.

Tatum turned around to see Stiles following behind them clutching her backpack as if his life depended on it. She rolled her eyes. Lydia had Stiles wrapped around her little finger and she probably didn't even know it. Not that it really mattered, Lydia was dating this guy named Jackson and yet Stiles still persisted. But the thought of boyfriends reminded her of David, her ex back in Minnesota and she didn't want to think about him. So instead, she listened as Lydia gushed about the jacket Allison was wearing. Was this really all the girls here talked about?

Suddenly, they came to a stop at Lydia's locker. Stiles caught up with them and awkwardly stood behind them when Lydia motioned him with her hand to move along. With a sad, lost puppy-dog expression he walked over to where Scott stood, still carrying Tatum's backpack. Just then Lydia's boyfriend Jackson joined them, quickly giving Lydia a peck on the lips.

"Hey, Jackson. This is Allison and this is Tatum." Lydia introduced them to Jackson as if they had already been friends forever. Tatum still found this quite weird and couldn't help but wonder if Lydia was up to something because it was sort of suspicious that she suddenly took an interest in her. Jackson nodded at each of the girls before he wrapped his arms around Lydia's midsection. The strawberry blonde then smiled at the two girls. "So, this weekend, there's a party."

"A party?" Allison questioned.

"Yeah, Friday night. You guys should come," Jackson said as he rested his chin on Lydia's shoulder. Tatum furrowed her brow for a moment. Did he just use a plural noun? As in both of them? As in her too?

"Uh—I can't," Allison said as she pulled her hair behind her ears nervously. "It's family night this Friday. Thanks for asking."

"Oh," Lydia sighed giving pouty lips before looking at Tatum. "What about you?"

"Me? I—uh—well—I—uh," Tatum stammered.

"C'mon, you guys should both come. Everyone's going after the scrimmage," Jackson said. Tatum was pretty sure that he was doing it for Lydia. Either that or they were looking to find a way to embarrass her. God, she was so paranoid about things sometimes. She was so lost in her thoughts that she missed Allison asking if it was a football scrimmage. "Football's a joke in Beacon Hills. The sport here is lacrosse. We've won the state championship for the past three years."

"Because of a certain team captain," Lydia cooed as she nuzzled her head against Jackson's neck. Tatum tried to look away for a moment. Other people's PDA made her uncomfortable…or was it jealous. She was pretty sure it was more uncomfortable—but suddenly she found herself being roped into going to watch lacrosse practice with Lydia and Allison. Although, she was already planning on going to it seeing as Scott was on the team and he was her ride home, but her plans included working on the algebra homework Kremer had given them the first day.

The girls walked down the hallway together. Tatum spotted her backpack on the floor in front of Scott's locker. Obviously, Stiles had grown tired of carrying her crap and had dumped it. Tatum bent down and grabbed her bag and hugged it as she caught up with Lydia and Allison again. Together, they walked out to the field and sat down on the bleachers. Tatum pulled a notebook, pencil, and her math book out of her backpack. She opened up and started working on the assigned problems.

"Are you even going to watch?" Lydia questioned.

Tatum looked up from her math onto the field to see the coach putting Scott in front of the goal. From her little understanding of things, Scott hadn't gotten any playing time last year—nor had Stiles, but Stiles was still on the bench, Scott was not. If there were some lacrosse gods, she hoped that they wouldn't let Scott make a complete fool of himself. She watched as her cousin stood there waiting for the first attempt. The guy threw it and it knocked him to the ground, while still scoring on him. Tatum winced and then directed her attention back to her algebra. -2(q+7)=16. First step was to take care of the -2 so she divided both sides by -2.

"Who is that?" Allison whispered to her causing Tatum's head to suddenly fling up. "Oh, sorry, you really were doing math, weren't you?"

"I—uh—did you ask Lydia?" Tatum asked rubbing her neck which now had a kink in it.

"She doesn't know his name. The guy from our English class in the goal." Tatum couldn't help but smile before she shook her head. "Is it that bad?"

But before Tatum could respond, another kid aimed at the goal. Tatum held her breath as she watched the ball soar toward Scott when out of nowhere, he caught it. He caught it! She muttered yes under her breath as she could hear Stiles shout of joy and the coach's surprise. Another kid then went to score, but again Scott caught it again. And again. And again.

"He seems like he's pretty good," Allison said with a smile on her face. Lydia concurred with a grin on her face and Tatum couldn't help but smile.

"That's my cousin!" Tatum shouted cupping her hands over her mouth. She hadn't meant to do that, but she did it without thinking. She then started blushing as Allison looked at her, obviously wanting a few more details. Allison mouthed the word name so Tatum muttered, "Scott."

"Scott," Allison repeated with a grin on her face. Tatum shook her head and slightly smiled. She tried to focus on her math again, but it was no use with the excitement rushing through the crowd over Scott's amazing transformation on the field. Instead, she shoved her math back in her torn backpack and watched the lacrosse team practice. They hadn't had a lacrosse team back in Minnesota. Just the typical sports for a Midwestern school. Granted, at this time of the year they were probably freezing their asses off and getting snow days. Tatum hadn't even believed Scott that he played lacrosse until she had seen his gear and watched him and Stiles so some practicing over the summer.

When practice was over, Tatum pulled out her phone to text Scott that she was going to meet him at the car when Allison stole her phone. Allison dialed a number into Tatum's phone and hit call before pulling her own phone out of her pocket. Tatum nodded knowingly before Lydia somewhat squealed and took both of the phones. By the time Tatum walked away from practice, she had Allison Argent and Lydia Martin's phone numbers. Definitely not how she had expected the first day back after Christmas break to go. But just because they had exchanged numbers, didn't mean anything, right?

Tatum leaned against the car waiting for Scott to come out of the locker room so they could go home, but he was probably going to take forever. He was in there so long that Jackson and Lydia drove by and waved at her. Tatum awkwardly waved back when Scott and Stiles finally emerged in the outside world.

"Do we have to bring Tater Tot?" Stiles groaned loud enough for her hear. Tatum looked over at the boys puzzled. Clearly they were talking about her, but she had no idea why. Scott unlocked the car and she slid in the front seat as he threw his athletic bag in the trunk. When Scott got behind the wheel, he told her that he lost his inhaler last night and that they needed her help to go find it. She reluctantly agreed as she pulled her feet up to rest on the dash as she held her dress underneath her thighs.

They came to the Preserves and Tatum looked over at her cousin. Of all the places to lose his inhaler, he had to lose it here? They would have better luck finding a needle in a haystack than finding his inhaler here; but she knew why they needed to look. Aunt Melissa had been picking up extra hours to support two kids instead of one and an eighty dollar replacement inhaler was an unnecessary expense, especially when Aunt Melissa refused to spend the death benefits Tatum received from her parents. That money went into an account to use for college someday. Stiles jeep pulled up alongside them as Scott and Tatum got out of the car. Scott told them to follow him. So, Stiles and Tatum followed behind him. Stiles turned to look at Tatum.

"What?" Tatum scoffed.

"So you're friends with Lydia now? What did she say? Did she say anything about me? Did she say anything about liking me? Did she—"

"I am not going down that road with you."

"C'mon, please? I'm begging you here. I won't call you Tater Tot for the next month, I promise." Stiles stuck out his bottom lip for emphasis, but Tatum simply rolled her eyes and continued walking toward Scott.

"So, what got into you?" Tatum asked her cousin who was now weaving in and out of the trees.

"I don't—I don't know what it was. It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball and that's not the only weird thing. I—I can hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. Smell things…" Scott started before Tatum coughed that Stiles normally smells to which Stiles pretended to laugh.

"Smell what?" Stiles questioned.

"Like the mint-mojito gum in your pocket," Scott said looking at Stiles. Stiles began to argue that he didn't have any mint-mojito gum when he found a piece buried in his pocket. He looked at it and then to Scott, causing Tatum to cough an insult at him. It was then the bite was finally mentioned. The bite Tatum had seen this morning.

"So the love bite wasn't from Stiles?" Tatum questioned.

"Funny, but no," Stiles said.

"Guys, this is serious. What if it's like an infection, like my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something," Scott groaned.

"Someone's been watching too many medical procedurals," Tatum laughed.

"No, no, I got a completely logical explanation for this. I think it's called—lycanthropy," Stiles finished with a grin on his face. Having gone through that awkward Twilight phase a few years earlier, Tatum couldn't help but laugh at Stiles explanation—but Scott didn't seem to get it. He actually seemed rather worried about it when Stiles continued. "It's the worst, but it only happens once a month."

"Once a month?" Scott questioned which made Tatum snicker once more. She may not be Stiles biggest fan, but sometimes he was all right to team-up with against Scott.

"Symptoms include bloating, irritability, cramps, and bleeding from your vagina," Tatum said sarcastically which made Scott give her a look.

Stiles' face turned to one of disgust and he swatted at Tatum. "No, no, Tater Tot—it happens on the full moon." Stiles howled which made Scott look between his best friend and his cousin and shake his head. Stiles laughed. "Hey, you're the one who heard a wolf howling."

"Are there even wolves in California?" Tatum questioned.

"No."

"So then getting his period is the most logical explanation."

"Guys, what if there's something seriously wrong with me?" Scott groaned getting rather angry.

"Don't believe a word Tater Tot says," Stiles chuckled. "A werewolf is much more likely than getting your period." Scott's expression was rather sour toward his friend. "Okay, obviously I'm kidding. But if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can, it's 'cause Friday's a full moon."

"And FYI I stockpile chocolate," Tatum added with a grin. "Just in case."

Scott shook his head and kicked at the ground. "I could have sworn this was the place. I saw the body right there and the deer came running from there. Meaning I dropped my inhaler…right here."

"Maybe the killer moved the body?" Stiles said with a shrug. Things then clicked for Tatum. This was where the boys had been last night. Last night looking for the body. Meaning that today they were probably still looking for…

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are we looking for your inhaler or a body?" Tatum asked.

"You didn't tell her did you?" Stiles hissed. "I told you we should have dropped her off! Now she's going to freak out."

"I'm going to kill you both!"

"See? I told you."

"Not if I die from this bite before you get the chance!" Scott argued.

"I'm going back to the car to get the baseball bat," Tatum muttered as she turned around on the heel of her boot. She could hear Stiles in the background tell her to act rational—but this was rational. She turned back to see Stiles and Scott when her body went slamming into something solid. She fell to the ground in a rather unladylike position, especially wearing a dress, when she looked up. Her eyes widened to see that it wasn't a tree but a person she had run into. "Oh. My. God. I am so sorry…"

"What are you doing here? This is private property," the guy with dark hair and greenish colored eyes grunted at her. She spluttered to find the words when it was Stiles who came running to her rescue. He helped her to her feet and she found her hand tightly clinging to Stiles' arm.

"Hey, sorry man—we didn't know," Stiles told the guy as Tatum, still clinging to him, moved to stand behind him. She rested her head against his back, every once in a while looking over his shoulder to see the scary ass guy in front of them.

"Yeah, we were just looking for something, but—uh—forget it," Scott added. The guy then tossed Scott something. Scott easily caught the item—which ended up being his inhaler. The guy walked away not saying anything more as Stiles shook Tatum loose from her death grip on him.

"You guys know who that was?" Tatum shook her head no and Scott didn't say anything when Stiles continued. "That was Derek Hale. Remember him, Scott? He's only like a few years older than us."

"What am I supposed to be remembering?"

"His family. They all burned to death in a fire, like ten years ago."

"Oh my god!" Tatum gasped as her hands flew over her mouth. "That's terrible."

"Makes you wonder what he's doing back, doesn't it?" Stiles said.

"Yeah, it does—but I gotta get to work. This took longer than I thought it was going to. Stiles, can you drop Tatum off at home?" Scott asked. Stiles said that he would do it, but Tatum sarcastically responded that she would much rather walk than ride home with him. By the time they got back to their vehicles, her feet were killing her and the thought of walking the rest of the way home seemed unbearable. So she grabbed her backpack from Scott's car and hopped into Stiles' vehicle with it. She stared straight ahead as Stiles got behind the wheel.

"Not. One. Word." Tatum warned him and for a while, it seemed like he was actually going to listen to her. They were about halfway to her house when Stiles started chuckling. She tried her best to ignore him, but she just couldn't. "What?"

"Oh my god, I have never actually seen you lose your shit like that before," Stiles teased. "It was hilarious."

"Shut up, Stiles."

"Oh no. You're never living this down."

"Shut up, Stiles." Tatum repeated those three words over and over again as Stiles continued to make fun of her until they pulled up in front of her house. He wasn't even in park yet, when she decided to make her break. When she jumped from the vehicle, she almost lost her balance and fell onto the lawn, but she somehow managed to not fall as she leaned backward, shutting the door behind her. She could hear Stiles calling you're welcome to her, but she ignored him and walked toward the house, ready to sit on the couch and watch mindless television because it had just been one of those types of days.


	3. All Night, All Day

The rain poured outside as Tatum lay on her bed with her earbuds in her ears listening to Teenage Dream while she attempted her math homework. Her right hand used her pencil as a drumstick against her textbook to the beat of the song. She hated doing homework, but then again, what teenager actually enjoyed homework? Looking up from her jam to the rain pattering against her window, she wondered where her cousin was.

Scott should have been home by now and Aunt Melissa was picking up an extra shift at the hospital. She pulled her earbuds out before she rolled onto her back and tilted her head backward so that she was face to face with Perry the Platypus. She begged him to do her math for her, but in true stuffed animal fashion, he didn't respond. Tatum muttered to Perry that he was useless to her when her cell phone began to buzz from her bedside table.

Tatum rolled back onto her stomach, crushing her math, as she to stretch for her phone. The struggle was real. She had to wiggle her body forward a little before her fingers grasped the phone. When she turned to see who was calling her, she was disappointed that she had worked that hard to reach it.

Reluctantly, she hit the answer button and put the phone up to her ear. "What'd you want, Dobby?" Tatum held the phone between her cheek and shoulder as she rubbed her face with her hands. She heard Stiles pause for a second before he started chuckling to which Tatum responded by rolling her eyes. "You have three seconds to tell me why you called before I'm hanging up on your ass."

"No, no, no—don't hang up. It's about our math assignment," Stiles practically shouted over the phone causing Tatum to jerk her head. Her phone fell from her shoulder to her bed. Instead of picking the phone back up, she simply hit the speakerphone button. "Tater Tot, you there? Tatum? Tay—"

"I'm still here, against my better judgment." Tatum paused before continuing. "So, of all the people you could possibly call and you call me?" Tatum pushed her body up like she was in a push-up position and scooted herself of her math book, quickly noticing that she had bent several pages in the process.

Stiles hesitated for a moment before speaking. "You were like third on my list of people to call."

This piqued Tatum's interest. Third—that seemed sort of high, especially for Stiles, so she had to ask, "How many people are on said list?"

"Three. Scott isn't in our class, plus he's at work and I keep getting a busy signal when I call Lydia." She nodded her head knowing that the list made sense before shaking her head at the fact that Stiles had tried to call Lydia Martin. From the little she had interacted with the girl today, Tatum was pretty sure that she didn't even know Stiles existed. There must have been too much silence for Stiles, because he began to talk about the assignment. "So—about number seventeen. What kind of teacher would give us an unsolvable problem?"

She rolled her eyes before looking at problem seventeen. She looked at it in confusion. "Really? I got number seventeen just fine."

"Then you did something wrong."

Tatum's brow furrowed. Where was he coming off telling her that she was wrong? "Or maybe you did." She then sat up on her bed and sat cross-legged with her arms folded across her chest. That little twerp. She was going to have to come up with something good for payback. Google would probably help her with this matter.

"I think I would know if I did something wrong. I'm not an idiot."

She bit her bottom lip in frustration and then continued. "If you called me just to insult me, I'm hanging up now." Stiles then began to shout that he didn't want her to hang up as her finger neared the end call button. She wanted to do it—she did, but there was this part of her that couldn't say no—even if that person was Stiles Stilinski. "I don't understand what's so difficult about -7…"

"Negative? It's a negative?"

Tatum picked up her math book to find that it was indeed a negative. "I'm pretty sure a fourth grader can noticed a negative sign."

Stiles fumbled to find words for a few seconds until he said, "Ah, that would be the problem. There's a crusty booger covering the negative sign." He then went on about the crusty booger in his math book that he didn't want to touch but it was covering up the negative sign.

Tatum really didn't care, so she walked out of the room and went to the bathroom as Stiles continued to go on about something or another. When she got back, he was still talking. This kid could keep a conversation going with himself. She walked to her bed to see that her phone was also getting a call from someone else. Someone she certainly wasn't expecting to get a call from.

She debated not answering for a second, but then realized that it would get her off the phone with Stiles. The lesser of two evils. "Stiles— as enjoyable as this has been, I have to let you go. I'm getting another call."

"Who is it?"

"Lydia. Bye." Tatum could hear Stiles beginning to ask her a question when she hit the end call button and switched over to answer Lydia's call when she accidentally hung up on her too. Crap. Shit. Why did the switching calls thing have to be so complicated? Now, did she awkwardly attempt to call Lydia back? What if Lydia had called her by mistake and then she made an ass of herself by calling her back? No, it would be much safer to see if Lydia was going to call her back. Not that she really had anything to talk to Lydia about.

Tatum stood up, adjusted her plaid pajama bottoms before she walked over to her desk and shuffled a few papers. Nervously, she paced her room. Why was she so nervous about this? Maybe it was because as much as she tried not to care about being liked by people—she did. Suddenly, her phone lit up and began to buzz again. Quickly picking it up, she noticed that Lydia was calling her again. Tatum pressed the accept call button and put the phone up to her ear.

"I—uh—hello?"

"OMG, Tate, I thought that you were asleep. Thank god, you're not. We have much to discuss."

Tatum's brow furrowed as she listened to Lydia. She had called her Tate. It wasn't bad or anything, it was just that the last person to call her that had been David, her ex-boyfriend back in Minnesota. She hadn't talked to him since he had broken up with her the day after her parents died. In his defense, he had broken up with her before she had told him her parents had died, but still, his timing had been terrible. She hadn't even looked at another guy in that way since their break up. "Tate. Taaatte. You still there?"

"I—yeah, I'm here."

"Good—we need to talk about your party."

"My party?"

"Well, yours and Allison's. I was thinking and then I ran the idea by Jackson and we thought what could be a better way than to introduce you two to everyone than a party. I mean, the party was already a go—but with you two headlining it, this party is going to be worthy of a rock star."

Tatum's head was spinning. Why was Lydia going out of her way to do this? Not to mention that neither she nor Allison had actually committed to this party that was apparently being thrown in their honor. Lydia continued to ramble on with details and Tatum wasn't quite sure what she was agreeing to every time Lydia asked her a question or whether or not she thought Allison would think the same. Tatum rubbed at the bridge of her nose as Lydia began to talk about

"I—uh—I hate to even bring this up, but uh—didn't Allison say she couldn't come?"

"I just got done talking to her and she changed her mind. Now, that should be all for now. If I think of anything I'll just ask you at school tomorrow."

"You will?"

"Of course, silly. Just meet me in front of my locker fifteen minutes before homeroom. Bye!"

Tatum didn't even stammer out the word goodbye before Lydia hung up on her. She walked over to her bed and fell on top of it. What the hell, was happening? Lydia Martin befriending her? She couldn't help but think there was some evil plot to humiliate her behind it all. She had obviously seen She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You.

Of course—both of those 90s movies involved a guy going after a girl for terrible reasons. Maybe it was more along the lines of Mean Girls. That would make sense—but she didn't want to be Lindsay Lohan. That girl was cray-cray. But whatever was going on, she was just going to have to let things play out. Besides, maybe she was just being paranoid. Probably not—but maybe.

Tatum's phone buzzed. She groaned before picking it up and finding that she probably had 12 missed texts from Stiles. They were almost all about Lydia—of course. What's Lydia saying? Tater Tot, are you ignoring me? Lydia? Why's Lydia calling you? Are you best friends with her now? Can you set me up?

She had only gotten halfway through deleting his texts when she heard the front door close downstairs. She set her phone down on her bed, listening to it buzz again as she left her room and headed downstairs. Jumping two steps from the bottom, she landed on her feet and put her hands up in the air like a gymnast hitting the landing. Her only applause was Scott staring at her like she was crazy while he was eating a pudding cup.

"You scare me sometimes, you know that?" Scott told her after he swallowed the pudding in his mouth.

"Tell me something I don't know, like where have you been?" Tatum folded her arms across her chest and cocked an eyebrow at her cousin as he ate another spoonful of pudding while nodding his head. "Fine, but now I want pudding too. So come with me if you want to live."

Tatum grabbed Scott by the crook of his elbow and dragged him to the kitchen with her. He walked backward until Tatum accidentally ran him into a wall. She giggled her apology before stepping into the kitchen and meandering toward the fridge. Opening it, she pulled out a pudding cup and set it on the counter.

She went to go grab a spoon when Scott stole her pudding cup and started devouring it. With her mouth wide open, she walked over and smacked her cousin playfully on the arm before pulling out another pudding cup. Scott just laughed as he sat down at the kitchen table, waiting for Tatum. She came over and sat down cross-legged on the chair beside Scott.

"So the very fact that you haven't blown me off with a nothing yet, makes me very curious that something actually happened to you," Tatum said before scooping chocolate pudding into her mouth. She missed her mouth a bit and got some pudding the tip of her nose, but she easily licked it off with her tongue. Scott just sat there watching her. "Well?"

"I was at work." Scott shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of pudding. Tatum didn't buy it and the incredulous expression she gave her cousin said so.

"And? Come on. Spill your guts. You know that I live my social life vicariously through you, not that you're actually that much more social than I am, but that's beside the point. Tell me!"

"Says the girl who is now friends with Lydia Martin. Stiles would not shut up about it in the locker room."

"As disturbing as I find the fact that Stiles was talking about me in the locker room, we're talking about you."

"There's no distracting you is there?"

"Nope. One of my finer qualities. Now tell me. Pleeease. Or I'll tell Allison all your embarrassing stories at school tomorrow."

"Blackmail, really?" Tatum smirked at her cousin causing him to shake his head in her direction. "I'll tell you but only if you promise not to tell Allison my embarrassing stories."

"Pinky promise." Tatum stuck her pinky finger out. A childish gesture that kept many secrets between her and her cousin. A pinky promise between the two of them actually meant something. Scott rolled his eyes before wrapping his pinky finger around his cousin's finger. "All right Scotty, any time now."

"Allison. I was with Allison. She hit a dog and then we brought it to the animal clinic and yeah." Tatum dropped her spoon to the floor, the metal clanking against the tile. Scott bent down to pick up her spoon because he refused to meet Tatum's surprised expression.

"Na-uh." Scott banged his head on the table trying to sit up. Tatum threw her head back and laughed at her cousin's expense as he handed her spoon back to her, rubbing the back of his head. Her stomach hurt from laughing at him that she clutched her stomach, trying to settle herself. Once the giggles were under control she looked back at her cousin. "I'm so glad you're the over-sharing kind."

"There's not much else to say."

"Yeah, why don't I believe that?" Tatum cocked an eyebrow at her cousin causing him to shake his head. He stood up and walked over and ruffled her hair before claiming that he needed to go shower. She watched as he walked out of the kitchen. "This isn't over you know!"

Tatum quickly finished her pudding before she went back upstairs to her bedroom. She walked over to her desk and pulled open the bottom drawer. She dug through the drawer until she came to her leather turquoise journal in the back, purposely hiding from Stiles. The last thing she needed was him reading her diary and making fun of her for it. Not that there was actually much embarrassing stuff in the journal.

It was actually a collection of letters she had written to her mother since she died. She knew that she could talk to her Aunt Melissa about anything, but there were some times that she just needed to talk to her mom—and this was the only way she could do it. Tatum grabbed a pen and walked back over to her bed. She sat down and placed her journal in her lap before she started to write.

Dear Mom,

Sorry it's been so long since I've written. Looks like since before Christmas a.k.a my birthday. Having a Christmas birthday sucks, you know that? You only get one set of presents and almost everyone forgets your birthday. I mean, Aunt Melissa and Scott didn't forget or anything, but everyone else did except for Scott's idiot friend Stiles who invited himself over when it was time to eat cake. You couldn't have waited another week or two to give birth to me? I'm not here to complain. Sorry. Just wanted to update you on what's going down here in Beacon Hills. School started back up again. I think I might have actually made my first friend here, but I don't want to get too attached just to have it not work out, you know? I guess I just really miss you and Daddy. I wish I were back home with you both. I feel like no one gets it and that people look at me like I'm some sort of pity case or something. Is pity case even a phrase? Probably not. But I should probably head to bed before Aunt Melissa gets home. I love you. Give Daddy a hug and kiss for me.

Xoxo,

Tatum Marie

The next day at school, Tatum debated avoiding Lydia—but no such luck because Lydia found her. Tatum had formulated a plan to maneuver through the hallways to get to her first class without passing Lydia's locker on the way to school, but Lydia ended up finding her before she even left the parking lot. Tatum looked to her cousin for help, but Scott was absolutely no help. He just attempted to cover up his laughing with a fake cough before he walked away from her—leaving her alone with Lydia.

They walked into the school together as Lydia started talking at her while Tatum tried to battle the traffic in the hallways a few steps behind Lydia. A bag slammed into Tatum's stomach causing her to groan in pain, but Lydia continued plowing forward. Tatum was glad when they finally came to a stop at Lydia's locker. She ran her fingers through her long hair which she had kept down while the strawberry blonde girl fished through her locker as Allison walked up to meet them.

"So we need to talk about what you both are wearing Friday night," Lydia started as she shut her locker. "I was thinking that we should go shopping after school. Well, after practice technically." Tatum and Allison glanced at each other—neither really sure how to respond. Neither Tatum nor Allison answered quickly enough for Lydia so she quickly continued. "Please? Help me help you."

The warning bell rang, giving Tatum and Allison an excuse to head for their English class. Lydia called after them that they would continue the discussion at lunch as they walked away. Allison looked over at Tatum and smiled, causing Tatum to smile right back at her. They took the same seats they had yesterday.

Scott watched them carefully as they walked past him with this big goofy grin on his face. Tatum rolled her eyes in response while Allison gave a slight smile and tucked her hair behind her ear. Scott attempted to say hi to Allison, but Tatum was interrupted when someone behind her went pssst into her ear. She quickly turned around to find Stiles behind her.

"What now? Can't you just let me live my life in peace—without you? Is it really that difficult of a concept?" The look of frustration was clearly evident on Tatum's face. They even got a glance from Scott, but Stiles waited until Scott was distracted by talking to Allison again to continue in a near whisper.

"I hate that I'm even saying this to you, but I need your help with something." Tatum rolled her eyes again before continuing to get snarky with him.

"Like what? Pointing out another booger in your algebra book—because I'm going to pass."

"It's about Scott." She had to admit that the thought tempted her for a moment. The briefest moment. But that thought quickly flickered.

"Then bring it up with him. He's yourfriend, , not mine. I'm turning around now."

Tatum's hair slapped Stiles in the face as she turned around to face the front. She had intentionally done that—hoping that it would annoy him enough to leave her alone. For a while—she thought it did work. The teacher started class by handing them an article they were supposed to read and annotate. Tatum pulled a hi-lighter from her old Pocahontas backpack from grade school that had made the journey to Beacon Hills with her—since she was down a decent backpack thanks to Stiles.

As she read through the article she started to chew on the hi-lighter until a folded up piece of paper plopped onto the article in front of her. Startled, she looked around her—only to find Stiles making awkward jerking motions with his head that she hoped he was going to break his neck. She blew a breath of air out of her mouth before she opened the note and slipped it until the article so that the teacher couldn't tell.

Need your help tonight. You know I wouldn't ask you unless I absolutely had to.

Tatum picked the pen that lay strewn on her desk before she started to write a response back to Stiles.

Already have plans…with Lydia. That's right. I'm going shopping with Lydia for the party she's throwing ME. Take that, Stilinski. Now read your stupid article.

She carefully folded the note back up and dropped it over her shoulder onto Stiles' desk when the teacher wasn't looking before she returned her attention to her article. As she highlighted something she could hear Stiles grunting and crossing something out on the note. It made her smile—but she had to hold back the laugh so she didn't make a scene in front of the teacher.

Out of nowhere, her hi-lighter dried up, so she bent over to get a new one just as Stiles tried to toss the note back to her. As she was trying to sit up, the note hit the back of her head causing the note to go flying toward the front of the classroom. Both Stiles and Tatum stood up to go get it when their English teacher grabbed it first. He held it in his hands and looked at Tatum and Stiles standing there with guilty expressions on their faces. Neither made a move to sit back do as if they were frozen in place.

"Miss Starr, Mr. Stilinski, I do not tolerate your love notes in my classroom." Both Tatum and Stiles tried to protest, that they weren't love notes—but the teacher wasn't having any of it. "Unless you can figure out how to write them in iambic pentameter, I suggest you refrain from writing each other. Next time, I will read it in front of everybody. Now sit down unless you'd both like another detention."

Tatum turned around and made a motion of slitting her throat toward Stiles—the meaning he seemed to understand as he picked up the article and started reading it. She did the same. They both were careful to avoid looking at Scott who seemed to be quite puzzled by what just happened. She didn't even wait for anyone when the class was finished. She practically bolted from the room, still pissed at Stiles for being so stupid and passing her notes during class.

The whole day just seemed to kind of suck and by the time she got to chemistry—someone had stolen her seat. Tatum growled something under her breath before she looked at the lab tables for an empty seat. She found one next to a guy whose name she couldn't remember, but she knew that he was on the lacrosse team—that was all. She walked over and made awkward eye contact with the guy.

"Is that seat taken?" He kind of smirked at her.

"Yeah…by," the boy started. Tatum groaned before turning around as the guy seemed to laugh at her expense. Stupid jocks—but then his hand reached out and grabbed her books. "It's taken by you. You didn't let me finish. Have a seat new girl."

"I'm not the new girl anymore. I've been here since the beginning of the year," Tatum mumbled as she sat down on the stool and started organizing her belongings.

"Then what's my name?"

"What?" By this point, Tatum was making eye contact with the boy.

"If you're not new—then you know my name, right?" Tatum just stared at him blankly, blinking slowly. He nodded his head knowingly. "Might not want to give up that new girl status until you've figured out everyone's name, just saying." Tatum shook her head and pulled out her pen as she started to doodle on the upper margin of her notebook. "It's Isaac by the way—my name. You know, in case you were wondering."

"Good to know." Tatum couldn't help but smile a bit at him before turning slightly away.

"You know, most people usually introduce themselves in a situation like this."

"I—I'm…"

"I already know your name, Tatum Starr."

"Then why did you…" But Tatum never got her answer because the class started. She couldn't help but look over at Isaac every once in a while through her hair. She was pretty sure that he caught her once, but he didn't say anything. He just sat there and wrote down a note every once in a while. When the bell rang, he didn't say anything to her. He just walked away leaving Tatum staring at him as he left.

"So…about tonight…" Stiles interrupted her thoughts when he spoke from behind her.

"I'm busy; I already told you that." Tatum reached down and grabbed her Pocahontas backpack before she walked away from Stiles who was still trying to convince her otherwise. She then walked to lunch where Lydia and Allison were waiting for her. Jackson didn't seem too pleased to see her, but then again, he wasn't really happy to see anyone. Tatum remained fairly quiet during lunch, allowing Lydia to dominate most of the conversation while Tatum focused on eating her cheese fries.

After school, Tatum went to watch the lacrosse team practice with Allison and Lydia. Lydia talked about the stores they were going to shop at once practice was over while they walked across the grass to the bleachers. Tatum still wasn't over the fact that people actually stayed and watched sports practices…outside in January. Then again, they usually had snow until the middle of April in the Midwest. Tatum sat to the left of Allison and Lydia sat on Allison's right to watch the boys practice. Isaac ran by them and he took notice of Tatum and gave her the nod, which caused her to blush.

"Who is that?" Allison questioned.

"His name is Isaac Lahey," Lydia responded before Tatum could even think. "He's single and should be at the party, Tate. It's obvious he's into you."

"Whoa. I just sat by him in chemistry, that's all," Tatum said shaking her head.

Lydia grinned. "Chemistry? It's like it's fate."

"Oh god…" Tatum buried her head in her hands as Lydia smirked over at her. Allison rubbed Tatum's arm before whispering in her ear that at least the boy was cute which made Tatum blush even more. Not that she was interested or anything, but she had never gone through this process before.

Back in Minnesota, she had started "dating" David before she even had the time to go through the process. She had never gotten beyond having a massive celebrity crush on Chad Michael Murray after A Cinderella Story. Tatum looked up just in time to see her cousin make an impressive play on the field. She started clapping along with Allison.

"Where did he learn to play like that?" Allison questioned.

"No clue," Tatum responded as she shrugged her shoulders. "I always just assumed he was terrible, but that's probably because I didn't believe that anyone would actually willingly play lacrosse."

"Well, he's good."

"Anyone who can actually play the game is good in my book. Back in Minnesota, we had a lacrosse unit in P.E. and I accidentally pantsed the girl who hated me."

"How do you accidentally pants someone in lacrosse?"

"By freak accident—you go to catch the ball, trip, your stick grabs hold on the elastic band of their sweatpants, and the pants go down as you crash to the grass. Apparently, it's hilarious to watch. My teacher was laughing his ass off while the girl was screaming around the field because she was wearing a thong that day."

"That story sounds almost too good to be true."

When practice was over, the girls walked over to Allison's vehicle. Allison called her parents to tell them that she was going shopping with some girls she met as Lydia and Jackson made out for a bit. Tatum stood there awkwardly until Allison unlocked her vehicle and Tatum hopped in the front seat. It was at moments like this that she wished she could text her mom and tell her what she was doing, but if she did that no one would answer. Tatum wasn't sure how long she waited, but Lydia and Allison eventually got into the car before Lydia directed them to the nearest store.

The girls walked into the store and one of the cashiers greeted Lydia by name. Lydia simply brushed the woman off with a wave of her hand before she told Allison and Tatum to follow her. The girls looked through the racks of clothing, Tatum stayed close to the sales rack. She didn't plan on actually buying anything—especially since the sales rack was even more than she could afford. She could look, but she couldn't buy. Tatum moved to go to a different rack when she was intercepted by Lydia. Tatum was quite shocked to find the girl standing there and stifled a scream which caused Lydia to cock her head in confusion.

"Try this on. It goes well with your skin tone." Lydia then held out a dark green dress toward Tatum.

"I—I don't know," Tatum stammered.

"Humor me." Lydia grabbed Tatum's arm and dragged her to the fitting room. Lydia hung the dress on the hook before she walked out of the fitting room and closed the door behind her. "Let me know when you have it on."

Tatum sighed before she looked at herself in the mirror before getting sticker shock looking at the price of the dress. There was no way she could afford that, but this was some weird sort of girls bonding ritual—so she had to put it on. She went to take her pants off, only to have her phone fall out of the pockets. She had 4 texts and 1 missed phone call all from Stiles. Weird.

This was the second time in a twenty-four hour period that he was trying to get a hold of her. Something was off, but she ignored her phone and slipped the dress on. Lydia was right—it did look good on her. The strawberry blonde had even gotten her size right. Lydia then called for Tatum and Allison to come out. Allison and Tatum both came out and Lydia giddily clapped her hands seeing how good both girls looked in the dresses she had picked out for them.

"You know I was thinking something a little less…" Allison started.

"Dressy," Tatum finished. "Don't get me wrong this is beautiful, but…"

"No you're right," Lydia conceded. "Stay right there. Both of you. But Tate, you should but that dress on hold for when winter formal rolls around."

Tatum blushed at Lydia's compliments—although to be honest, she wasn't sure if she trusted them or not. Why had Lydia suddenly taken an interest in her? It didn't really make sense. Then again, life never really seemed to make sense and when it did, and then life threw a curveball at you. Lydia came back with some tops for them to try on. Tatum tried the stuff on, but when she was done, she told Lydia that she couldn't really afford anything right now. Lydia offered to buy something for her, but Tatum said that it wasn't necessary.

Allison, however, did settle on a coffee colored top and Lydia found a few pieces she couldn't do without. The girls then headed for the checkout register when Tatum's name was called over the loudspeaker to come to customer service for a phone call. Tatum's brow furrowed before Allison told her that they would wait for her if they got done first. She then walked over to the desk where a woman handed her the phone after she introduced herself.

"Hello?" Tatum answered hesitantly, unsure of who could possibly be calling her let alone know where she was shopping.

"Tater Tot, how much longer are you going to be?" Stiles' voice questioned over the phone.

"Seriously? How the hell did you even find me?"

"Do you really want the answer to that?" Tatum groaned and rubbed at her forehead muttering that she was going to kill him. Obviously, his stalking powers were almost at a professional level when it came to Lydia Martin. She shook her head when Stiles continued. "I really need your help."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the only one who is almost as smart as me that cares about Scott. It's important."

"And you're not going to stop bothering me until I help you, right?"

"There's that too."

"I still hate you."

"So you'll do it?" Tatum didn't respond to him. Instead, she handed the phone back to the woman behind the counter. As much as she really didn't want to help Stiles, she didn't want him annoying her until she did.

Besides, the fact that it somehow involved her cousin had her beyond curious. Not to mention the fact that Stiles still persisted she help him even after turning him down all day. It probably was important. She just would much rather help anyone but Stiles. She walked over to the girls who were still at the checkout. Lydia handed the cashier the green dress she had Tatum try on.

"What are you doing?" Tatum questioned, but Lydia just shrugged her off and stated that they were putting a hold on the dress. "You don't have to do that. I—"but Lydia wouldn't let her finish. The dress was placed on hold.

Tatum could feel the color rising to her cheeks out of embarrassment, but Lydia must not have noticed that because she suggested that they go home. Tatum groaned. It would make more sense to have Allison drop her off at Stiles' house than her own; but she if she had to go subject herself to Stiles' company, she was going to return the favor for the last prank he pulled on her.

The girls piled into Allison's vehicle before Tatum asked. "Can we swing by the grocery store?"

After swinging by the grocery store for the junk food she knew she was going to need to survive Stiles, Allison pulled up outside Stiles' house.

"Is this where you live?" Allison asked.

"God no, Stiles just needed help with homework or something. I don't know, he's a dork like that," Tatum offered as Lydia stared quizzically at the house.

"Who's Stiles?" Lydia asked.

Tatum tried to hold back her laughter by coughing which made it sound like she was choking. Allison questioned if she was all right and Tatum just nodded her head as she continued to cough. Lydia however was still quite confused. Tatum almost felt bad for Stiles—almost. She then grabbed her stuff and thanked Allison for the ride and told both girls that she would see them in school before she awkwardly ran to the front door of the Stilinski home. She hadn't been here much. To be honest, she preferred to wait outside for Scott instead of going inside. The fresh air did a body good, right?

Tatum waved as Allison pulled away before rang the doorbell and stood there waiting. She assumed that Stiles was probably home by himself so she rang the bell quickly three more times in succession when someone answered the door. That, someone, wasn't Stiles. It was his father. The local sheriff and someone she hadn't really communicated with. Her eyes widened for a minute before she put a sweet smile on her face.

"Tatum, what are you doing here?" Sheriff Stilinski asked after opening the door with a slightly puzzled expression on his face as he found Tatum Starr standing on his front porch with her arms folded across her chest, a Pocahontas backpack strapped to her back, and a grocery bag swinging from her arm.

"I'm here to kill your son." Tatum smiled up at him, causing him to shake his head.

"You know as the sheriff I can't condone such behavior…but as Stiles' father, come on in. He's upstairs in his room."

"Thank you," Tatum said as she practically ran past Sheriff Stilinski and up the stairs, announcing her presence to Stiles. He poked his head out of his room into the hallway with one eyebrow raised. Stiles tried to steal her grocery bag, but she hugged that thing tight, protecting it with her life as she explained that she hadn't eaten yet. He tried to argue that she couldn't just bring food and not share. She looked around for a place to sit and moved to sit in his desk chair but he quickly beat her to the chair.

Tatum gave him a look asking him where she was supposed to sit now and he motioned to his unmade bed or the floor with his dirty underwear. With a pissed-off expression on her face, Tatum somewhat made his bed before sitting down on top of the comforter. "Can you please explain to me what's so important that you require my help now?"

Stiles stood up and poked his head out the hallway before closing his door. He sat back down and looked seriously at Tatum. "It's about Scott."

"You've already told me as much." Stiles then sighed loudly before he tossed a couple of books from his desk onto the bed. Tatum gave him a curious expression before she thumbed through a book on made-up creatures. The other books were of the same genre. She shook her head before closing the books. "You're missing a book."

"Really? What one?"

"Twilight. I'm going home now." Stiles looked puzzled for a moment before he groaned as Tatum stood up. He then quickly got up and ran to block the door and her from getting out. "Let me go or I'll scream and you know Daddy won't like that."

"Tatum, I really need your help. I thought I was crazy at first too, but the more I look into things the more it makes sense. I need a second set of eyes on this and you're the only one who will take it seriously and think I'm crazy at the same time. Please. An hour. That's all I'm asking. If you're not convinced in an hour, you can go and you get a free pass at me."

She looked to mull things over for a moment, before she sighed, "Actually, I'll get two. One to get back at you for the last prank and then the free one."

Stiles nodded his head and sighed as Tatum went back and sat down on his bed, starting to eat some of her snacks. He then began to explain how he thought Scott was now a werewolf. Apparently, the fiber they had found at the crime scene was a wolf. Being from the Midwest, Tatum didn't think finding wolves to be very odd, but she had overheard Stiles say that wolves weren't in California. Scott had been scratched by a wolf, which Tatum found slightly odd, but nothing to be worth jumping to the werewolf conspiracy. He was about to explain something else when she stood up.

"My hour's not up," Stiles said.

"I have to use the bathroom, my god," Tatum said rolling her eyes as she grabbed her grocery bag. "Unless you'd prefer I do it right here."

"What do you need that for?"

"Feminine products." Was all she had to say to watch Stiles' face contort and see him get all uncomfortable? But that wasn't the truth. She escaped to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. No, she didn't have her period. She had her next prank planned for Stiles. She was going to put chicken stock in his showerhead so this way when he took a shower, he was going to come out smelling like chicken broth.

Thank goodness for the internet and ideas at getting back at people. She quickly opened the shower curtain before she unscrewed the head and dumped the stock inside, trying hard not to laugh. Once the showerhead was screwed back on, she flushed the toilet before turning on the sink and then heading back to Stiles' room.

Stiles had a video up on his computer, ready to show her for more proof. It was a video of one of their lacrosse matches from last year—where Scott was on the bench. Tatum tried to argue that it wasn't a big deal, but then Stiles told her that he thought she was going to say that. He then pulled up a video from when he and Scott were practicing before Christmas break. Scott wasn't terrible, but he didn't look remotely similar to the Scott she had seen playing on the field.

For a brief moment, the thought of drugs crossed her mind, but she knew her cousin wouldn't be stupid enough to take drugs, especially with Aunt Melissa working at the hospital. Plus Stiles pointed out that he hadn't seen Scott use his inhaler since they had retrieved it. He was right and Scott had been fairly dependent on that thing. Tatum's brow furrowed. It made sense and yet it didn't. Tatum walked back over and sat on the bed as Stiles flipped through his calendar.

"Shit—this isn't good," Stiles groaned before practically shoving a calendar in her face. "Full moon."

Tatum started flipping through the books again as she chewed on her cherry pull-apart Twizzlers. She could feel her eyes growing tired as she yawned and rubbed at her eyes, but no, she had to keep reading because the more she read, the more she was actually starting to buy into Stiles' theory—as crazy as it was. Instead she changed her position on the bed so that she was lying on her back holding the books in front of her. She still continued to yawn as Stiles talked out loud and she would grunt every once in awhile in response, but eventually she needed to switch positions again.

This time she lay on her stomach and rested her face against the pages of the books as she read. Her eyelids continued to droop and she tried to force herself to wake-up, but the assumption that Stiles would wake her up to kick her out won out and she fell asleep with her head in a book on Stiles Stilinski's bed. The only problem with this was that Stiles never noticed her because he fell asleep at his computer, practically drooling on the keyboard. The two teenagers unintentionally had their first sleepover.


	4. Bad Moon Rising

Tatum's alarm rang and someone nearby groaned as she rolled onto her back. That had been the worst night's sleep she had ever had...and she had quite a few terrible nights. Slowly, she peeled back her eyelids and confusion instantly struck her. It took a few moments to adjust to things when she saw the sun beginning to rise from inside Stiles' bedroom. The revelation caused her great distress. She had slept over. At Stiles' house. In Stiles' room. Dammit.

She immediately hopped off his bed and reached into her bag for her phone to turn the alarm off before she walked over to Stiles. She pushed his head down on the keyboard causing him to gasp and then wake up. He was quite confused to see Tatum standing there until the realization hit him and she started freaking out, out loud. "Oh god, I've never stayed out all night before…and I had to do it with you? Someone please, just kill me now."

Stiles looked offended. "It's not my fault you fell asleep!" he argued.

Tatum turned to him and looked at him with an unamused expression. "But it is your fault you didn't wake me up!"

"Don't blame this on me."

A knock came at the door. Tatum and Stiles both looked at each other with eyes wide, neither saying a word. "Stiles, you up?" It was Stiles' father on the other side of the door. They both began to panic. Tatum tried to get her stuff shoved in her bag as Stiles ran over to the window and opened it. He then vigorously motioned for her to hop out the window as he told his dad that he would be out in a minute. Tatum shook her head which only made Stiles motion more vigorously. "Tater Tot, c'mon," Stiles hissed.

"No freaking way. I'm scared of heights," Tatum hissed back at him.

Stiles unamused expression went to a duck face before he argued in a whisper. "Well, you should've thought about that before you slept over."

"I hate you," Tatum hissed as she picked up her Pocahontas backpack and slung it over her shoulders. She then walked over to the window, completely forgetting about her grocery bag of things. Tatum took a deep breath before she climbed out the window. Once on the roof, she listened to the instructions Stiles gave her for getting down to the ground. She was just a few feet away when Stiles stopped and grinned. Tatum looked at him and rolled her eyes. "What?"

Stiles sat on his window ledge with a bit of a smirk on his face. "Nothing. You wouldn't want to know."

Telling her what she wanted, made her want the exact opposite. "What is it?" she groaned.

"You're the first girl I've had in my bed." His smirk widened as Tatum's look soured. She looked about to puke when suddenly a similar look came over Stiles' face when the realization struck him.

"Don't tell Scott." They both blurted out simultaneously, making eye contact.

Tatum and Stiles both nodded their heads in unison before Tatum escaped once more. She followed Stiles' instructions and found the back porch and attempted to shimmy her way down the trellis. She was almost to the bottom when she lost her footing and slipped. She crash-landed in the bushes. She tried not to scream, but a little one escaped her mouth.

Tatum tried to pick herself up from the ground only to hear chuckling coming from above. If Stiles was making fun of her, she was most definitely going to yell at him. Buth when she looked up, she found Sheriff Stilinski leaning against the railing with a banana in his hand. Her eye's widened in horror. Crap.

"Good morning, Tatum," Sheriff Stilinski greeted rather pleasantly and not at all surprised. "Last time I checked, the front door worked."

"Sheriff Stilinski, it's not what it looks like I…" Tatum started as her face began to turn bright pink.

"Looks to me like you and Stiles fell asleep working on a project or at least that's what I told Melissa when she called to see if I'd seen you. She was pretty worried, but I told her you were fine here for the night."

Tatum brushed some leaves off her pants. "Uh—project, yeah, then it's exactly what it looks like."

Sheriff Stilinski then tossed her the banana and told her that she should head home. She nodded her head as she picked out some greenery from her hair as the sheriff shook his head. She really hoped that he didn't read too much into what had happened. She also hoped that Melissa hadn't told Scott about her sleeping over at Stiles.

That would be terrible, especially given the fact that he might possibly be a werewolf. But he couldn't be…right? This was so damn confusing. She almost wished she hadn't gone digging into things with Stiles because then maybe her brain wouldn't hurt as badly—or maybe it was the sugar hangover. She couldn't really be sure.

By the time she got home, Aunt Melissa was waiting up for her and sitting at the kitchen table. She tried to sneak upstairs without being noticed, but Melissa called her over. Damnit. Sheepishly, Tatum walked into the kitchen, but Melissa had a stern expression on her face. "A phone call would have been nice, young lady," Melissa said as she took a sip of coffee.

"I know. I'm sorry. I fell asleep working on a project. It won't happen again. I promise you…and myself that there will be no more sleepovers with Stiles." Melissa motioned for Tatum to have a seat. The teenager set her backpack down and walked over and sat beside her aunt. "I really am sorry."

"I know you are. I just want to be sure that this isn't you acting out because your parents are gone. I know I'm not your mother, Tatum, but I want you to know that you can trust me with stuff. That you don't have to hide anything from me."

"I'm not trying to hide anything from you. It was an accident, that's all. Besides, you really think that I wanted to spend my night with Stiles?"

Melissa smirked from behind her coffee mug. "That should have been the dead giveaway, huh?" Tatum laughed and Melissa told her, "Now, go get ready for school."

The school day was rather dull. Tatum and Stiles avoided each other thankfully. She ate lunch with Lydia and Allison again and was beginning to wonder if she was actually starting to fit in. Because if that was the case—it was weird.

Lydia went on and on about the party. It was obvious that she was excited about it. Tatum, on the other hand, wasn't as excited. She was disappointed that Isaac hadn't been in any of their classes. If he was sick and then he wouldn't be at the party that night. Not that she was expecting anything to work out with him. But she really liked him at least what she of him so far. He had even been sweet enough to text her last night when she was with Stiles, but she didn't know what she wanted or expected anymore.

"If he's not there, then we'll just throw another party," Lydia said with a shrug. "But I'm gonna text him and see what's what."

"You don't have to do that," Tatum mumbled.

Lydia raised an eyebrow. "Sure, I do. I'm like your fairy godmother and I want to be sure that Prince Charming is actually at the ball."

After school Tatum went home. She knew that Stiles was going to confront Scott about his theory. Tatum didn't want to be present because she didn't want to look completely stupid in front of her cousin, just in case. No, she'd let Stiles look like the fool. But the picture Stiles sent her after his confrontation with Scott had her worried. There were slash marks in his chair. Slash marks that looked like they came from Wolverine or something. Ok, she was slightly worried now—but she tried not to show it in front of Scott when he came home to get ready for the party.

Tatum dressed for the party. She wasn't sure what to expect from a Beacon Hills party. She didn't want to overdress but it would also be a bad idea to go in her pajamas. She eventually settled on a pair of jeans and a blue Sesame Street shirt that read Everything I Know I Learned on the Streets with Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Oscar on it. She scrunched her hair and applied some makeup.

Well, Aunt Melissa put some makeup on her. Tatum's mother had never been a makeup person and Aunt Melissa was still teaching her the art that was makeup application, one Tatum feared she would never quite master. Melissa patted Tatum on the cheek when her makeup was done. "You be good now," Melissa said.

Tatum smiled, "I will."

"I mean it. No shenanigans."

Tatum rolled her eyes and stood up before she walked over to the bathroom to wait for Scott. He was taking longer than she was and he didn't have to do as much to get ready. It was ridiculous. But she made sure to escape the house when Melissa and Scott had a conversation about the party. She didn't want to be there for that awkwardness.

The Starr girl decided to walk outside to wait by the car. She knew she was going to have to be the awkward third wheel in the car, but she supposed she could suffer through it for a few minutes. Then much to her surprise, a car pulled up to the curb. Tatum watched it curiously as a dark figure got out of the car and walked into the light, making Tatum smile a bit. It was Isaac.

"What are you doing here?" Tatum called, awkwardly shoving her hands into her jeans pockets.

"Lydia—I—uh—just seeing if you wanted a ride to the party," Isaac said, shuffling toward her. "I'm hoping I didn't borrow my dad's car for nothing."

With a grin on her face, she motioned for Isaac to give her a second as she shouted inside that she was leaving before she got into the car with Isaac. "Nice shirt," he said with a grin.

Tatum choked on a chuckle before she responded. "My mom got it for me for my last birthday. She said it was the truth. That she could just sit me down in front of the TV with Sesame Street and call it good parenting."

"Seems pretty good to me." His comment struck her as odd, but she didn't say anything about it. Instead, she changed the subject.

"Were you sick today?"

Isaac nodded his head. "Wasn't feeling 100%, but I'm better now I'm with you." He looked over at her and grinned. Tatum practically melted at his grin. He was so goddamn cute. She gave him a playful shove in the arm. "Driving here," he laughed before he was silent for a moment. "And I meant what I said. You always make my days better."

Tatum cocked an eyebrow. "We've known each other for like a day." She knew she was exaggerating, but she enjoyed teasing him.

"It's been longer than that, but even if it only was a day, then you've made my last day better."

Tatum didn't say anything. Instead, she rubbed at her arms which were cold. She should have known better than to wear short sleeves—which was odd. Right now in Minnesota, it was probably in the negatives and yet here she was freezing in positive temperatures. She must've acclimated quicker than she expected.

When they pulled up to Lydia's house, Isaac took his zip-up hoodie off and handed it to Tatum. She smiled as she put it on and she was pretty sure he did too. Tatum missed a strange look of jealousy from Stiles, who was standing at the doorstep waiting to go inside.

Lydia squealed as she greeted them at the door. She then proceeded to grab Tatum by the hand and started introducing her to everyone who was at the party so far. Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Tatum turned to look at Isaac who gave her a slight smile before he started talking with Jackson in the corner of the room.

After about fifteen minutes of introductions, Lydia walked Tatum over to get a drink. Tatum looked at all the alcohol, unsure of what to have. She had always been the good girl back in Minnesota and never went out and partied, even if David did. She had no idea what to drink.

Thankfully, Stiles had followed them over to the drinks and he handed her a can of Coke. "The hard stuff," he said jokingly as she accepted it with a smile on her face. He looked like he was about to tell her something more when Isaac interrupted and asked if she wanted to go outside for a bit. She thanked Stiles for the Coke and then walked with Isaac outside, again, missing the look of frustration on Stiles' face.

Outside, everyone was dancing. Tatum looked at Isaac and he looked rather apprehensive as he leaned down and whispered in her ear. "I'm crap at dancing," he said.

"We don't have to dance," Tatum said. "That wasn't part of the deal. It was to go to the party together. So technically, I think your obligation is complete...if you want to be."

"You're not getting away that fast." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her over to the patio set and they sat down on the bench. They sat there for a few moments in silence. There was a bit of an awkward gap between them but he closed it by pulling one of those fake yawn-arm around the shoulder moves.

Tatum chuckled and then looked up at him. "Confession time: I haven't been to a party before," she said with a blush.

Isaac nodded his head and drummed his fingers gently against her arm. "If you're making a confession, then I'll make one too. I don't really go to parties either, but I snuck out to see this girl in my chemistry class."

Tatum looked at him awestruck as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "You snuck out for me?"

Isaac smirked. "I never said it was you."

But Tatum could tell from his expression that he was teasing her. She pretended to be offended by scooting away from him. But He reached out and grabbed hold of his sweatshirt that she was still wearing. She giggled as he gently pulled her closer beside him again. Tatum then leaned against him as they continued to talk. Isaac was surprisingly intelligent, but she knew that there was something he wasn't telling her. Then again, it wasn't like she was spilling all her secrets either. There were some things that came with time and telling a boy that both of your parents were dead was one of them.

In the corner of her eye, Tatum could see Scott dancing with Allison. He looked happy. Well at least he did look happy, but then he suddenly ran away from her. Tatum turned to look at the situation for a moment when Isaac fake coughed. Curiously, Tatum to looked back at Isaac. He gave her a shy smile so she returned his glance with her own confused smile. He managed to stammer a few incoherent words before he scooted closer to her, his eyes locking with hers. Tatum bit her bottom lip for a moment knowing what was going to come next as he started to lean his head in closer to hers. She closed her eyes and waited…

"Tater Tot, we gotta go." Tatum opened her eyes and swung her face to look at Stiles who was interrupting her just as Isaac continued to go in for the kiss and ended up kissing her cheek. Needless to say, that wasn't what he had intended. Tatum turned to apologize to Isaac when Stiles interrupted her again. "Go. Now."

Fire lit in Tatum's eyes as she turned and glared at Stiles. "I'm kinda busy," Tatum hissed.

Stiles folded his arms across his chest. "It's about You Know Who."

Tatum rolled her eyes. "I really could care less about the Dark Lord right now."

Stiles' body jerked suddenly in frustration. "Oh my god, You Know Who is Scott—not Voldemort. Scott—and Scott is sick. We need to go check on him." He looked rather serious which caused Tatum to groan.

Tatum turned toward Isaac and took his hand in hers, "I'm really, really, really sorry about this…"

But before she could finish apologizing, Stiles, not wanting to wait any longer took hold of Tatum's arm and practically dragged her away from Isaac. "Really, really, really sorry!" Tatum shouted as Stiles continued to drag her away.

Lydia caught sight of her walking away with Stiles and the strawberry blonde's brow furrowed. "Where are you going?" Lydia questioned. "This is your party."

"F-family emergency," Tatum stammered as Stiles continued to drag her away.

They came to a sudden stop when they saw Derek Hale walking away with Allison. Tatum looked at Allison with a puzzled expression, but the other girl didn't turn around to look back at her. Instead, she just continued to walk away until she got into Derek's vehicle. Tatum was about to call for Allison, but Stiles shouted at her first. "Get in the Jeep, Tater Tot!"

Tatum rolled her eyes before she climbed into the Jeep and Stiles began driving. She inhaled a whiff of something strong and then smirked to herself. "Smells like chicken," Tatum said casually.

Stiles' eyes widened as his eyes jolted from the road to Tatum. "You. It was you. Dammit. What did you do to me?"

Tatum couldn't help but start laughing. Stiles looked over at her while he was driving causing him to veer a little off the road, but Tatum snapped her fingers at him telling him to pay attention to where he was driving. "I am killing you once we know that Scott is safe and not attacking the city," he hissed.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Actually, I still owe you one more prank as per the deal we made."

He shook his head. "And now I hate myself for ever agreeing to that. I've smelled like KFC all day and it's your friggin' fault."

Tatum only smirked at him as she looked out the window. She hoped that they were overreacting about Scott. Because then she could kill Stiles for interrupting her time with Isaac. She still wasn't exactly sure what was going on between them, but that was supposed to be the fun of it, right? With her ex, they had gotten into such a rut of things and it wasn't really fun anymore—it was almost like a chore. She wanted someone who made her heart race, who could make her laugh, but most of all just plain understood her. David never did that—but maybe there was someone in Beacon Hills who could.

Stiles slowly pulled up in front of the McCall house and Tatum noted that Aunt Melissa's car, which Scott had been driving, was in the driveway. Stiles practically slammed on the break, causing Tatum's head to slam against the dash as he put it in park.

Tatum rubbed her forehead as she hopped out of the car and followed after Stiles who was running toward the house. Stiles was clearly ahead of her as he sprinted up the stairs inside the house as Tatum came to the front door. She was out of breath. She needed to work out or something. That or get back into some of the sports she had done at her old school, but now wasn't the time to chastise herself about being out of shape. Instead, she quickly climbed the stairs to find Stiles standing outside Scott's room talking to him through a thin opening. Tatum leaned against the wall.

"Just let me in. I can help you with this," Stiles stated while Tatum mouthed the words I? Really? But Stiles just rolled his eyes and shook his head. "C'mon man. We can try…"

Scott shouted from the other side of the door, "It's Derek. Derek Hale is the werewolf. He's the one that bit me and changed me. He…"

Tatum's eyes widened. "You mean Stiles was right?"

"It's been known to happen," Stiles muttered.

"I probably should feel bad about thinking you were a paranoid freak, but I don't." Tatum shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Tay? You told Tay?" Scott hissed through the door, it was obvious he wasn't happy. He pounded on the other side of the wall Tatum was leaning against, causing it to shake and a picture frame to fall and shatter. With a frightened expression on her face, Tatum slowly moved away from the door and toward the broken picture frame to pick up the glass. "Why would you do that?"

"That's not important right now. What's important is…" Stiles started.

"Allison. What's important is Allison and that she's not near a werewolf."

"Shit. Shit. Derek's the one who gave Allison a ride home." Scott's bedroom door slammed open. Tatum looked up at Stiles who started pounding on Scott's door, calling his name; but Scott never responded. "Shit. Shit. Shit. We gotta go find him."

"And if he really is a you-know-what, what are we gonna do about it?" Tatum questioned as she stood up and walked closer to Stiles, not wanting Aunt Melissa to wake up. He looked at her with a blank expression for a moment before continuing in a low voice.

"Unless you have a better plan, let's go." Stiles looked at her for a moment before he walked past her, almost pushing her out of the way. Tatum set the broken frame back down on the floor before she followed Stiles back down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, he tossed her Melissa's car keys and suggested that it would be best if they split up.

Tatum tried to argue with him, but he ignored her concerns. He said that he was going to drive over to Allison's house because that seemed like the most logical place and that Tatum should just drive around town looking for anything suspicious. If she found anything she was supposed to call him and he would call her once he was over at Allison's.

Tatum started her aunt's car and as she adjusted the rearview mirror she saw Stiles' jeep pulling away. She rubbed her brow. This seemed crazy. Scott was really a werewolf? And so was Derek Hale? What the hell was in the water in Beacon Hills? She backed the car out of the driveway before she headed down the road, driving aimlessly in a sense. She drove over to the school to see if maybe Scott had headed there. But no such luck.

So she continued driving. She came to an intersection where she had a green light and she started to go through it when out of nowhere a big, somewhat intimidating-looking vehicle blew their red light and their vehicles almost collided. Tatum slammed on the breaks and angrily glared at the vehicle as she tried to catch her breath. Even though the car was speeding away from her, paying her no mind, she still flipped it off. The car behind her honked its horn before Tatum put her foot back on the gas and started driving around again.

She was nervous for her cousin. Was he going to be all right? Maybe this was just a figment of her imagination. Besides, it wasn't like she had actually seen anything. Maybe Scott was teaming up with Stiles to pull one over on her—although the tone of Scott's voice earlier told her otherwise. He wasn't that good of an actor. Right now what she needed was some clarity. Right now what she needed was her mom.

Then as a wave crashing over her, the tears began to stream from her eyes so hard that she couldn't see the road. She pulled over to the side of the road, shaking with tears. She missed her mother so much and she tried her best to hold this all together for everyone. It had been like six months—she should be over this, right? She sat there crying for almost ten minutes when suddenly her phone started to ring. She picked it up and answered it.

"Yeah?" Tatum said with a sniff as she ran her fingers through her now messy hair. This was not how she had planned for the evening to go.

"Are you alright?" Stiles questioned over the phone. This sort of shocked Tatum. Stiles actually asking if she was all right? Strange. She could tell him what was actually bothering her, but she wasn't sure that he would understand. He was just Stiles, the idiot who was best friends with her cousin—nothing more.

Instead, her first line of defense came out to play: sarcasm. "Yeah, you're just hearing things. That's nothing new. What do you want?"

"Allison's fine. She probably thinks I'm crazy, but she's fine."

Tatum choked out a mangled laugh. "Stiles, you are crazy." There was a moment of silence after which Tatum sighed.

"Are you sure you're alright? You don't sound alright."

"Just tired, Stiles. Also, way to be an asshole telling a girl she doesn't sound alright."

He was silent for a moment. Tatum was surprised that he wasn't prepared with a quit jab. Instead, he said, "Maybe you should go home and wait for Scott." Tatum nodded her head in agreement, despite the fact that Stiles couldn't read her gestures over a phone call. She hung up and turned the car around to drive herself home.

When she got home, Scott still wasn't home. She finished picking up the picture frame mess from earlier before grabbing her pillow and blanket and camping out in his room. She threw her stuff on his bed and lay down on it, just like old times. For a while, she thought about all the forts they built in here, the crazy stupid games they played, the multiple times she had tried to attack Stiles. Good times. Good times. Tatum lay there motionless for a bit just reminiscing until she fell asleep.

The next morning, Aunt Melissa came in and gently shook her awake. For a second, Tatum was confused why she was in Scott's room—and so was Aunt Melissa. Tatum freaked for a second before asking where Scott was, but Melissa told her that he had texted her saying that he was going to stay the night at Stiles' house. Tatum rolled her eyes. Of course, he did.

After stretching, Tatum grabbed her things and headed back to her own room where she intended on going back to bed and sleeping even longer. But as she passed by herself in the mirror, she realized that she was still wearing Isaac's sweatshirt from last night. She really should return it to him. Not to mention that it would give her a chance to see him again. She might have been slightly crushing on him—oh hell with it, she was and she wanted to see him again, especially after last night and Stiles' dragging her away unexpectedly.

But she had no idea how to figure out where he lived. She could ask Scott, but he'd ask too many questions. She could ask Stiles, but there was no way in hell she was doing that. Then it dawned on her that she could ask Lydia. She might as well use this awkward friendship for all it was while she still could. Tatum pulled her phone out of the sweatshirt's pocket before she texted Lydia for Isaac's address. She then collapsed on her own bed, hoping to get some more sleep before Lydia responded, but Lydia was quite prompt in responding with the address and several hearts and winky faces. Not that she thought about it, asking Lydia was probably a bad idea—but it was the lesser of three evils.

After sleeping for a little longer, Tatum decided to walk over to Isaac's house to return his sweatshirt. Needless to say, she was a bit nervous. She kept replaying last night over and over in her head. Maybe she had read too much into things. Maybe he actually wasn't into her at all. Besides, it had only been a few days—who would be interested in her after only a few days? She had known her ex since preschool before they started dating. And yet she still continued walking. Between her house and Isaac's house, she almost turned around three times but eventually she found herself standing at the front door of the address Lydia had texted her. What if Lydia was messing with her? What if this was some sick joke? But out of nowhere, the front door opened to reveal a rather gruff looking man who was eyeing her down.

"Hi, you must be Isaac's dad. I'm Tatum Starr, a friend from school," Tatum offered, despite being nervous. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as the man continued to watch her.

"What do you want?" He growled, causing Tatum to flinch, but she had come this far.

"I-uh—was hoping to see Isaac."

"He's a bit held-up at the moment."

"Please? It will only take a minute and then I'll be out of your hair…not that I'm literally in your hair right now. It's metaphorically speaking. Is it really a metaphor? I always get that stuff mixed up." Coach Lahey put his hand up to stop her babbling. He motioned with one finger to give him a minute.

She pursed her lips, not wanting to say anything else stupid in front of Isaac's dad.

Tatum stood there waiting for what was definitely longer than a minute. She wondered what could possibly be taking Isaac so long. Maybe he didn't like her. Maybe he never wanted to see her again. It was probably stupid of her to stand there waiting for him when it was obvious he wanted nothing to do with her. She let the breath that she had been holding go before she took a few steps closer to hang the sweatshirt on the door handle. Tatum then turned around and was about to walk away when she heard Isaac feebly say her name.

She quickly turned back around to look at him standing in the doorway. He was wearing jeans and another hooded sweatshirt, which completely covered his body. Maybe these Californians just weren't used to the frigid temperatures which she would consider summer temperatures. But what drew her attention was the black-eye he was sporting and how badly he was shaking.

"Isaac, are you ok? Your face…" Tatum took a step closer toward him reaching up for his face, but he recoiled and gently pushed her hand away. Her expression was one of concern, but Isaac refused to meet her expression. Instead, he just folded his arms across his chest, wincing a bit.

"I'm fine. It's nothing," Isaac said flatly.

"It doesn't look like nothing."

"What do you want Tatum?"

"I—uh—I forgot to give this back to you yesterday." Tatum pointed at the sweatshirt hanging on the door handle.

"Thanks."

"So—I was thinking…"

"You should be going. I'll see you at school."

"Isaac."

"I said I'll see you at school." Isaac slammed the door on her, leaving her standing there blinking slowly. She wasn't sure how to interpret this. Hell, she wasn't sure how to interpret anything anymore. So Tatum Starr slowly turned around and began walking, because it seemed like the only rational thing left to do.


	5. The Games that Play Us

Monday mornings were the worst thing ever invented. Why did they even have to exist? Most likely, they existed purely to torment students who were forced to suffer through another week of the tortures of high school. Tatum Starr bit her bottom lip as she finished scrunching her damp hair into loose curls. She looked down at her phone that sat on the bathroom counter. There were no unread text messages or missed calls, which made her heart sink. She had hoped that Isaac would have texted her at some point over the weekend, but he hadn't. Tatum was scared that maybe he wasn't interested in her anymore. He had seemed awfully cold and distant toward her when she had tried to return his sweatshirt to him. Now the silent treatment she was getting from him. She certainly felt like she was in limbo.

Tatum sighed before she ran her toothbrush under the water and then put a dab of toothpaste on it. But as soon as she started brushing her teeth, her aunt Melissa called from the stairs, "Tay, your ride's here!"

Tatum's brow furrowed in confusion. Wasn't Scott supposed to be driving them to school in Aunt Melissa's car? She attempted to shout something, but toothpaste dribbled from the corners of her mouth. Tatum wiped at her mouth before she spit the toothpaste in the sink. By that time, Aunt Melissa appeared in the hallway and leaned against the doorframe. Melissa stared at Tatum curiously whose toothbrush hung in her mouth. "Stiles is here to take you and Scott to school," Melissa said. "So you need to hurry up."

"I thought we got the car," Tatum groaned.

Melissa shook her head. "Someone called in sick, so I'm picking up an extra shift this morning before going back in again for my night shift. Either get a ride with Stiles or walk."

Tatum looked at her aunt rather coyly before she asked hopefully,"Will you write me a note so I get an excused tardy if I walk?"

Melissa folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow. "What do you think, Tay?" Tatum sighed. She teenage girl knew the response without needing to be told.

The horn from Stiles' Jeep sounded and Tatum scrunched her nose in slight disgust before she dropped her toothbrush back into the holder. Aunt Melissa chuckled and patted Tatum's arm as she walked by. Tatum quickly shoved her homework that was on her desk in her bag and double-checked that she had everything. She was just about to head down the stairs when she realized that she didn't have her phone on her. Thankfully, Melissa had noticed that Tatum had left her phone in the bathroom, so she stood there holding Tatum's phone out to her. The teenage girl grabbed her phone and thanked her aunt before she ran down the stairs.

Once she was down the stairs and out the door, she found Stiles and Scott just about to pull out of the driveway. Tatum shouted for them to stop, causing Stiles to slam on the breaks. Both boys to jerk forward and quietly muttered cuss words. Tatum continued her awkward run to the jeep before she reluctantly hopped in the back of Stiles' jeep. Stiles looked at her and shook his head before he started to drive. "So what are you going to say to Allison, man?" Stiles asked Scott.

"I don't know," Scott groaned. "I mean, she probably thinks I'm a jerk."

"I'd start with words if I were you," Tatum said adjusting her backpack so that it now sat on her lap.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Stiles scoffed, rolling his eyes at Tatum in the rearview mirror before refocusing on the road. "Just tell her.. you had a family emergency or something."

Tatum rolled her eyes. "No, you don't do that, because then she'll want to know the details and you're going to flop trying explain that on the spot. I know you. Just tell her you weren't feeling well…which is the truth…in a sense...technically."

Scott nodded his head, seeing the logic in Tatum's argument. But Sties look at Tatum over his shoulder. She rolled her eyes and motioned for him to turn around. "Watch the road. I'd prefer to make it to school in one piece, thank you very much."

Slowly, Stiles turned back toward the road, shaking his head. "You scare me sometimes, with your manipulation powers Tater Tot, you know that?"

Tatum smirked. "Good."

Stiles watched the road for a few moments before he looked over his shoulder again, slightly in horror. "How often do you do that to me?" he asked.

Tatum raised an eyebrow and smirked again."You don't wanna know."

He nodded his head, accepting her answer. "You're probably right."

Scott then turned to look at his cousin. "Are you sure she'll buy that?" Scott asked.

Tatum gave a shrug noncommittally. "I think you need to figure out if you buy it first," she responded before she pulled her iPod and earbuds out of her backpack. She then pushed her earbuds in her ears and scrolled through her playlist until she came to Adele's Rolling in the Deep, which was much preferable than listening to Stiles and Scott and their insufferable conversations. Boys' conversations about girls were the absolute worst.

When they finally reached school, Tatum escaped from Stiles' Jeep with the greeting of "Land!", just like the little girl in The Pacifier, only because she knew it annoyed Stiles.

Stiles responded with a comeback of shut up before he and Scott walked away toward the locker room to drop off their stuff for lacrosse after school.

For a moment, Tatum stood there taking it all in as she pulled her earbuds out of her ears. Honestly, school was the last place she wanted to be right now, but she really didn't have a choice in the matter. So she walked to the cafeteria and bought breakfast. On the menu today was breakfast pizza. She wasn't exactly sure what qualified it as pizza, but she was hungry enough to eat it before she walked to her locker. Much to her dismay, she found Isaac leaning against the lockers next to hers.

Tatum was conflicted. While part of her was glad to see him there, she was also stubborn and still hurt from the other night. Since she couldn't fully sort out her feelings yet, she wasn't prepared to deal with the situation yet. So she put her earbuds backed in and set her chin high before walking toward her locker, pretending to not be able to hear what he was saying.

"Morning," Isaac drawled before realizing that he was being ignored. He groaned, "Tatum, c'mon, I'm sorry about Friday. I—I was a jerk. I'm sorry."

But she continued to ignore him until he leaned in closer toward her. She could practically feel his warm breath on her neck, but she continued to stare straight ahead into her locker. "I know you're not actually listening to anything and that you can hear everything I'm saying."

Damn, he was good. But she wasn't going to let that thwart her. "There's probably a reason for that," Tatum retorted as she turned toward him with her earbuds still hanging in her ears. Isaac gently tugged them out and gave her a cute boyish grin which was hard to refuse, but she held her ground. She stood a little taller and raised an eyebrow at him. "That's not going to work on me."

Isaac's lower lip jutted out a bit in a pout. "I already apologized, what else was I supposed to do?" Tatum pulled her phone out of her pocket and after a few swipes, she handed it to Isaac. He scrolled through it with a confused expression on his face as he went through her message list. "What am I supposed to be seeing?" he questioned before he looked at her with a slight smile on his face. "Is this how you wanted to tell me that you went to Hogwarts before coming to Beacon Hills? Because that would be kinda cool."

Tatum rolled her eyes. "No, I just haven't changed my contacts back to normal after Stiles messed with them. What you're supposed to be looking for is what is missing."

Isaac shrugged his shoulders and asked. "And what is missing?"

She rolled her eyes again. "Your name, Isaac. Your name is missing. I didn't hear from you all weekend. Would one little text message have killed you?"

His glance quickly flitted to the ground before he nervously responded, "My—uh—my dad…"

"What? Did he take your phone away from you?" Tatum folded her arms across her chest and looked at him, demanding an answer.

"Something like that," he said glancing up at her momentarily before he looked back at the ground. He looked rather nervous as he looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening before he looked back at Tatum, biting his bottom lip.

Tatum sighed and then turned back to her locker. She did feel bad about jumping to conclusions that she thankfully didn't voice. But that still didn't make everything magically all better. She could feel her face continue to grow redder as he stood there staring at her. "Will you stop that?" she asked without looking at him.

"Stop what?" he asked rather playfully.

She rolled her eyes. "You know what: staring at me."

"But I like looking at beautiful things." The stupid boyish grin was on his face again, but Isaac noticed that he was falling short on Tatum who's expressed was dead-panned. "C'mon, what's it gonna take to make it up to you?"

"Chocolate wouldn't hurt." Tatum softly smiled before shaking her head.

"Chocolate I can do that. I was just hoping you weren't gonna ask for someone's head because that might be a little more difficult."

Tatum smirked. "I can always change my mind you know."

"But I ask for your mercy this once." Isaac pretended to bow in her direction and Tatum couldn't help but giggle. Dammit. She couldn't stay mad at him even if she tried. She rubbed her face before slamming her locker shut and leaning against it so that she was looking right at Isaac who appeared to be pondering something. "So what about walking you to class? Will that help at all?"

"It couldn't hurt to try," Tatum coyly responded. Isaac nodded his head as he fell into step beside her as they walked to her first class. They didn't really talk at all as they walked. Tatum tried to focus on walking but she kept turning to look at Isaac who wore a slight grin on his face. She would blush and pretend to adjust her hair every time he caught her looking at him. So much for being subtle.

They stopped outside the door to Tatum's English class. Her eyes flickered inside the room for a brief moment to see Stiles watching her every move with Isaac. Not wanting an audience, she gently pushed Isaac out of Stiles' sight. He looked at her curiously as she looked up at him while she bit her bottom lip. "So, uh—thanks."

Isaac grinned. "Anytime." His intense gaze made her blush again.

"I—uh—I should get to class." She awkwardly waved at him before she quickly turned on her heel and walked straight into the wall. "Oh my god," she groaned.

Isaac chuckled at her as she continued to make her escape muttering the word stupid over and over. He watched as she finally walked into the classroom and found her seat. Isaac stood in the doorway waiting for her to look over and notice him one last time, but it took her a few moments to get over the embarrassment and look over.

But Stiles' gaze never left Isaac. When Tatum finally did look over, her eyes widened and she attempted to cover her face as she gave Isaac a little wave. He gave her the nod before he walked away with a smile on his face. Tatum was afraid to look over at Stiles who was now glaring at her. "What?"

"What are you doing with what's-his-name?" Stiles questioned.

"First he has a name, it's Isaac. You should know that. He is on your lacrosse team after all. Second, it's none of your damn business." Tatum heard Stiles mutter that he knew his name, which made her smirk. The bell rang and then it was time for another day of high school English class.

As the school day wore on, Tatum grew more and more excited to get to Chemistry class. Not that she actually enjoyed chemistry, but she knew she would get to see Isaac. The thought made her feel rather giddy. It had been a long time since she had a crush on someone. To be honest, she couldn't even remember the last actual crush she had. She felt like she was entering the world of middle school crushes for the first time, which she knew was pathetic.

Tatum walked into the classroom and found Isaac sitting at their lab table. She stopped in the doorway to smile at him when she felt someone push past her. It was Stiles…of course. He pushed her into the teacher's lab table as he ran and took the seat beside Isaac. Tatum glared at Stiles as he ignored Isaac telling him that the seat was already saved. Instead, the little twerp began taking everything out of his backpack and spreading it out across the lab table.

Tatum walked over there, glaring at her cousin's best friend. "Really?" she hissed.

"I have a much better angle at the board," Stiles said using his hand to point toward the board. "These eyes aren't what they used to be. Must be old age setting in."

She shook her head and looked at him icily. "Stiles, move."

Stiles shook his head. "No can do, Tater Tot."

Tatum narrowed her eyes at Stiles. Two could play that game. "Fine. Be that way. Isaac, let's go find another table."

"There are no open tables for the two of us," Isaac stated before looking back at Scott sitting at a lab table by himself. "Unless you think your cousin will move over here."

"You really want Scott to know about this," Stiles said pointing between Isaac and Tatum. "In his current condition? You might set him off, Tater Tot. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

Isaac looked back at Scott curiously as Tatum narrowed her eyes at Stiles. Honestly, she wasn't really sure what Scott was and wasn't capable of. She had read the books with Stiles, but beyond that, she hadn't actually seen anything. She only heard Scott knocking around in his bedroom…which really wasn't as dirty as it sounded.

"Fuck you, Stiles. Just know that I have an entire class period to devote to plotting your demise." Slowly, Tatum walked over to her cousin's lab table and sat on the stool beside his as he gave her a curious look.

"What's Stiles up to?" Scott questioned. "I mean no offense or anything, but he's usually my lab partner."

"He's doing what Stiles does best, ruining my life," Tatum groaned as she rested her head on her books and looked over at Stiles who was still mindlessly chattering to Isaac. Isaac looked over at her and shrugged his shoulders when Stiles pushed Isaac's face so that he was now facing the front of the room and not back at her.

Tatum then put her sad puppy dog look on her face and turned toward her cousin. "Make him stop."

Scott chuckled and shook his head as he doodled on his notebook paper. "So you and Lahey?"

She hesitantly asked, "Does that make you angry?"

His brow furrowed. "No. Why would it?"

"That's it. I'm killing him right now." Tatum stood up before Scott pulled her back down onto her stool. "He told me that in your current condition you couldn't handle it."

"Since when do you believe what Stiles says? You usually just tell him to shove it."

"Since he was supposedly right about…" Tatum stopped for a moment before she started making circular motions directing toward her cousin. "You."

Scott nodded his head before Tatum got a mischievous glint in her eyes as her plan for revenge began to formulate.

After school, Tatum searched for someone else to be her partners in crime. She found Allison and Lydia walking toward the lacrosse fields. Tatum sprinted toward them. Allison waved as Tatum approached her and Lydia looked almost shocked that Tatum was the one initiating contact.

"I need your guys' help," Tatum wheezed, doubled over from running.

"With?" Lydia asked raising an eyebrow at Tatum before looking at Allison. Allison just nodded her head for Tatum to continue.

Tatum looked at both girls rather seriously. "Before I divulge my evil plans you must both swear to absolute secrecy," Tatum said.

Lydia blinked slowly as Allison responded, "I'm in."

"I-I…" Lydia hesitated until Allison elbowed her. "Oh, fine. But we need to be done before practice gets over. I have plans with Jackson...if you know what I mean."

"We-uh-should be done by then," Tatum responded somewhat awkwardly. "Now c'mon, I'll explain as we take a walk to the home economics room."

Lydia's job was to distract the teacher while Tatum and Allison borrowed every roll of cling wrap from the room. They going to wrap Stiles' jeep in the stuff for the little stunt he pulled today…not to mention that Tatum still owed him one. She smirked. He was going to be so pissed, but the little twerp deserved it.

Lydia started talking to the teacher about what classes might be good for junior year since scheduling for next year was just around the corner. So while the teacher went into a big long spiel about classes, Tatum and Allison shoved every roll of cling wrap in their empty backpacks while the teacher's back was to them. Lydia then started motioning with her head for them to get out. the teacher started to turn her her head toward Tatum and Allison, but Lydia physically grabbed the teacher and turned her toward her.

"I have another question about….sex," Lydia blurted out, startling the teacher into staring back at the strawberry blonde who smiled innocently as Tatum mouthed thank you while she snuck out the door. "And look at that. I just forgot it. Damn. Bye."

Lydia quickly ran out of the room, shaking her head to find Tatum and Allison leaning against the lockers, covering their mouths trying not to laugh. "This better be worth it," Lydia muttered as her heels clicked walking down the hall.

"Oh, believe me, it is," Tatum chuckled.

The girls walked out to the parking lot and stopped at Stiles' jeep before Tatum dumped all the cling wrap boxes out of her backpack. Tatum bent down and picked up before handing a box to Allison and a box to Lydia. She then grabbed another one for herself. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"

The girls began wrapping the cling wrap over Stiles' jeep. Tatum started by wrapping the bars a couple times before reaching the plastic to another bar. She couldn't help but smirk while she worked. Tatum kept looking over her shoulder to make sure that a teacher didn't come by, but the only person who walked by was Erica Reyes, who glanced over for a brief second before she kept to herself and walked away.

Allison giggled, "Oh my god, that was close."

"Tell me about it," Tatum laughed. "You don't think Erica is gonna say anything. Do you?"

Allison shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know her."

"We should be fine," Lydia said knowingly. "The girl doesn't really have any friends. She doesn't have anyone to tell."

Tatum slightly frowned at Lydia's words. She knew what it felt like to not have any friends, but to be honest, she was just getting used to this friend thing to do anything about it now. Lydia stepped back from the Jeep as Allison and Tatum continued to wrap. "Whose is this?"

"Stiles Stilinski," Tatum responded as she swiped her hair out of her face.

"What's a Stiles?"

Tatum shook her head and slightly smirked. "An idiot who is getting what he deserves." Lydia looked at her curiously before Tatum responded. "He's purposely interfering with me and Isaac."

"Oh, then I take back what I said. He totally deserves it." Lydia then started wrapping again which made Tatum laugh.

"What did he do?" Allison asked.

Tatum rolled her eyes. "I think the better question is what didn't he do."

They finished wrapping the car just as the final whistle for practice blew. Tatum, Allison, and Lydia ran over to Jackson's car and sat down on the hood while they waited for the boys to walk by. Tatum was especially excited to see Stiles' face. But suddenly Jackson came by leaning heavily against Greenberg.

Lydia's eyes widened as she ran over to him while they took him to the athletic trainer's room. Tatum and Allison started to follow, but Lydia stopped them. So Tatum sat down on the curb. as the other boys started walking across the parking lot toward the locker room carrying their lacrosse gear. One by one they pointed out Stiles' Jeep and started laughing before stopping and waiting for the Jeep's owner to show up. Stiles eventually walked by with Scott. He was confused why all the guys had stopped.

"Is the locker room locked?" Stiles asked until Isaac stepped forward.

"Hey, Stilinski, nice car," Isaac chuckled. Stiles then looked at his Jeep and let out a wail before running toward it. He tried to pull at the cling wrap, but its hold was far stronger than he was. Tatum's laughter echoed through the parking lot causing Stiles to fall to the ground.

He then stood up and brushed himself off before marching over to where Tatum sat. "You! You did this?"

"I did," Tatum smirked and cocked her head. "You're welcome. Have fun getting it off."

He folded his arms across his chest and angrily hissed, "Tater Tot, I need a word."

Tatum sarcastically responded, "What kind of word? Verb? Noun? Adjective?"

"Just get over here and talk to me…alone!"

Tatum looked over at Allison and shrugged before she rolled her eyes and jumped to the asphalt and walking over to where Stiles' stood. He was trying to shoo people away from his Jeep before he motioned for Tatum to follow him. "What? I'm not helping you if that's what you want to talk about."

"This has nothing to do with my freaking Jeep. It's about Scott. He almost killed me on the field."

"It's about time he finally sees things my way."

"I mean literally almost killed me. When he can't control his anger he goes all postal and starts to transform."

"Stiles, part of me is starting to think that this is some big ruse you came up with to pull one over on me and you somehow roped Scott into it."

Stiles looked at her incredulously. "You choose now of all times to stop believing things? Now is not the time for that. I need you to help me with Scott."

"Fine, I'll see if I can find him a ride home too. Happy?" Tatum started to walk away when Stiles reached out and grabbed hold of her arm.

"Why are you so frustrating?"

"Because I can be," Tatum smirked at Stiles before walking away from him toward Isaac who was still chuckling at Stiles' Jeep. "Can I get a ride home? And potentially Scott too?"

"I rode with my dad today," Isaac said glancing at the asphalt.

Tatum gave him the puppy-dog expression. "Can we ask him, please?"

Isaac ran his fingers through his hair. "He's at swim team practice right now."

"Perfect, he'll love me. I used to be on the swim team back in Minnesota."

"Tate, believe me, normally I would, but my dad isn't…"

"Isaac, please?" By this point, Tatum had closed any distance between the two of them and was looking up at Isaac with her sad puppy dog eyes and pouting lips, but it didn't work. Instead, he told her maybe another time. He then quickly hugged her and told her that he would text her later before he walked back toward the school.

Tatum sighed and sat down on the curb once again to wait for Scott so they could figure out how to get home. Allison left. Lydia left. There was no one left. So, she ended up being forced to wait with Scott and Stiles while they waited for Sheriff Stilinski to show up. Aunt Melissa wasn't sure she could swing the trip before work. The only positive thing was that the sheriff couldn't keep a straight face as he looked as Stiles' Jeep. The second he saw the Jeep he began to laugh, knowing full-well that it had been Tatum that had done it.

"What'd he do now?" Sheriff Stilinski chuckled looking at Tatum, as his son rolled his eyes in response.

"Do you really want to know?" Tatum responded dryly folding her arms across her chest.

He shook his head and chuckled. "On second thought…no. I'll give you kids a ride home and Stiles I'll have your Jeep towed to the house and you can take care of it there."

Stiles looked at his father incredulously. "You'll pay a guy to tow it but not to fix it?" he questioned.

The sheriff shrugged his shoulders. "You're the one who got yourself into this mess. So, you can get yourself out. Besides, I know a guy."

The teenage boy folded his arms across his chest "And how am I supposed to get around until then?"

The sheriff shrugged his shoulders. "I think your bike is still in the garage."

"You've got to be kidding me." Stiles then turned toward Tatum. "You know, I had a piece of paper with all your phone contacts written on it, but you're not getting it now."

Sheriff Stilinski intervened and stepped toward his son holding out his hand. "Stiles, give Tatum the paper."

Stiles groaned and shook his head. "I don't have it on me!"

The sheriff turned toward Tatum. "Tatum, you just let me know if Stiles doesn't give you that paper."

"Will do," Tatum said innocently before raising her eyebrows toward Stiles who shook his head.

"How does this even happen? She's the one who caused all this and yet she comes out looking like a saint. It makes no sense."

"It makes sense if you don't think about it." She winked at Stiles and then hopped into his dad's cruiser. Sometimes, revenge was best served cold.


	6. A Hard Day's Night

Thanks to Sheriff Stilinski, Tatum and Scott did make it home, despite Stiles' many protests during the car ride. Tatum was thankful that the boys were the ones relegated to the back of the squad car while she got to ride shotgun. It made Stiles a little more tolerable to see him on the other side of the barrier. When Sheriff Stilinski pulled up outside the McCall house, Tatum sweetly thanked him. She didn't miss Stiles pretending to barf from the back seat, but instead of starting something, she figured she would let the sheriff deal with his son.

Once inside the house, Tatum and Scott both immediately went for the fridge. Scott playfully tried to push Tatum out of the way, but she managed to snag the carton of leftover Chinese food before he could. Tatum ran away with it squealing in victory and Scott chased her around the kitchen island until Melissa walked in.

"Whoa, teenagers, settle down," Melissa shouted. Scott and Tatum both stopped in their tracks.

Tatum cradled the Chinese container close to her and began muttering my precious.

"Tay, there's enough to share. Scott, you know better than to run in my house. Now with that said and done, I have to head back to work." Melissa then snatched the Chinese container and shoved it in her purse before she walked out the door.

"You just told me I had to share," Tatum scoffed, folding her arms across her chest.

"Yeah, with me. Bye. Love you both. Be good," Melissa said as she was halfway out the door.

Tatum leaned against the counter and sighed as she looked at her cousin. "There goes dinner," the teenager girl said somberly.

"Frozen pizza?" Scott suggested with a shrug.

Tay gave a single nod of her head. "Frozen pizza."

Tatum put the pizza in the oven and started working on her homework at the kitchen table while she waited for the pizza to cook. She had just pulled out her periodic table of elements to start memorizing for chemistry when her phone started to ring. She saw Isaac's name appear and that made her heart skip a beat. She let it ring twice before she tried to play it cool and answer it.

"Hello?" Tatum said clearly.

"Hey. You get home okay?" Isaac's voice asked.

She raised an eyebrow at his question. "No thanks to you."

He must have recognized something in her tone because he immediately apologized. "I'm sorry about that. I just didn't want you to meet my dad that way."

"I already met your dad."

"You know what I mean. It's just that meeting the parents is supposed to be a big deal thing, isn't it?"

"I don't know. The only other guy I've dated I already knew his parents before we started dating."

"I—uh—I just think it would be better if you waited before you got to know him. I want to make sure that I don't scare you off first." Isaac finished that sentence with a forced chuckle like he was trying to come off funny even though it was what he really meant. "Anyway, Lydia called me."

"Why?"

"Well, first she needed to tell me that Jackson's shoulder got separated at practice thanks to your cousin."

"Hey, I had nothing to do with that. I'm related to him. That's all." Did he have a point to all this? She rolled her eyes as she tapped the periodic table of elements in front of her.

"I know…I know. She also told me that I need to ask you out after the game."

"Oh?" Tatum began to smile. She had been waiting for him to make a move-well, a better move. She liked him and she was fairly certain that he liked her back.

"Yeah."

For a moment, Tatum's heart skipped a beat, but she had to play things off cool. After a long awkward pause, she asked, "So are you going to? Ask me out?"

Isaac chuckled nervously. "That's what I'm trying to do."

"Well, carry on then."

Isaac paused for a moment before he asked, "You wanna go out with me, Lydia, Jackson, Allison, and probably your cousin after the game? But mostly me of course."

"I suppose I could do that."

"You only suppose? What if there were chocolate involved?"

"Now we're talking. Hell, yes."

"So, it's a date then?"

"I guess it is."

"Awesome."

Tatum couldn't help but grin. Even despite Stiles pathetic attempt in chemistry class, Isaac persevered anyway. She was rather thankful that Isaac couldn't see her now though because her face was bright red despite how cool and collected she had tried to act on the phone. The oven timer started beeping so Tatum told Isaac she'd text him later before she hung up on him and walked over to the oven and pulled the pizza out. As she let it cool on the counter she couldn't contain her excitement any longer. She started squealing and jumping up and down.

"Tay, you alive down there?" Scott called from upstairs.

"I'm fine!" Tatum called back before whispering. "Better than fine actually." She squealed silently and did a little awkward jog in place before she sighed and leaned against the counter. As she reached for a piece of pizza, she heard the front door handle click. Someone was opening the door. She knew it wasn't Scott or Aunt Melissa…meaning that it was someone unwanted. So, Tatum reached for the closest thing to her, besides the pizza, which happened to be a broom. She grabbed hold of the broom and walked it toward the dark entryway. She could vaguely see whoever it was…and it wasn't Stiles, whom she had been expecting it to be.

"Who's there?" Tatum hissed nervously as she held the broom in the air.

"It's just me," a dark-haired, rather attractive somewhat older guy said. He held his hands up almost as if he were surrendering. Tatum recognized him as the guy from the Preserve, but she couldn't remember his name.

"Who's me?" This caused the guy to scoff a little.

"I'm Derek. I'm a friend of Scott's." Derek then closed the gap between them and wrapped one of his hands on the broom handle. "What were you going to do, broom me to death?"

"I hadn't got that far in my plan yet," Tatum responded as she tightened her grip on the broom.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to-uh help Scott with something. He's upstairs, right?"

"How do I know you're not some ax-wielding murderer or something?"

"Because I'm missing the ax and if I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it already instead of suffering through this painful conversation."

"Good point." Tatum then relaxed her grip on the broom and lowered it. "Next time ring the bell or knock. I could have killed you or something."

"Right. I'm sure you could have." Derek shook his head. It was obvious that he didn't think she was capable of her threats. Tatum placed her hands on her hips to try and make herself look more threatening as Derek slowly stalked upstairs. It was a rather odd way to go up the stairs, but at least this way she wouldn't be the only one having the crap scared out of her. It was fair, right?

Tatum walked back into the kitchen and grabbed a slice of pizza before she walked back over to the kitchen table to work on her barely touched homework. She really had no desire to read the novel Huckleberry Finn again. She "read" it last year back in Minnesota and hated it. By read, she attempted the first chapter and couldn't get into it so she ended up using CliffsNotes to get the basic gist of what happened. Although for each chapter they were supposed to write a one sentence summary of what happened and three-quarters of her summaries consisted of "They continued down the river" and because she was a good student her teacher must not have actually checked them because she managed an A+ on every summary. Maybe her teacher this year would be lenient of things because of her parents. She hoped so because there was no way in hell she wanted to "read" that book again. Thankfully, she was distracted from her homework once again by Scott running into the kitchen.

"Tay, did you let Derek Hale into our house?" Scott questioned.

"Yeah," Tatum said with a shrug. "He said he came to help you with something."

"He came to threaten to kill me!"

"Why would he do that?"

"He says if I play in the game on Saturday he's gonna kill me…because I can't control things."

"So then don't play in the game, problem solved."

"Tay, why aren't you taking any of this seriously? Stiles said that you think we're joking about all this werewolf stuff. Why would I do that?"

"You wouldn't…Stiles, on the other hand, would."

"Well, I'm not kidding here. Allison's dad tried to kill me the other night. I really need you on my side, Tay."

"Scott, you know that I'm always on your side." Those were the words that came out of Tatum's mouth, but in her head, she finished that she hadn't actually seen a damn thing to know for sure, without a doubt whether or not to believe him or not. But the fact that he was being upfront with her about this caused her to slightly sway back to believing that something was up. Not wanting to continue this conversation, she changed the subject. "Have you done the reading yet?"

"No. Huck Finn's been the last thing on my mind lately."

Tatum nodded her head before she gathered her books to take back upstairs. She put a piece of pizza between her teeth to carry it upstairs before she made the journey to her bedroom. Once inside, she kicked the door shut and then dumped her books on her bed before catching the pizza with her hands. When she finished her pizza, she realized her mistake of throwing her books on the bed. So, pushed them to the floor before she did a belly flop onto her bed and just lay there for several minutes internally debating whether or not she wanted to do her homework.

Eventually, doing the homework won out so that she could get good grades and go to college. Damn college. If her goals weren't so lofty, she'd just forget the homework thing. Although she made sure to get to Huckleberry Finn last. She even fell asleep while she was reading it. Scott chuckled when he found her with nose literally buried in a book asleep. He carefully grabbed the book and set it on her desk before he took one of her no-sew fleece blankets and laid it across his sleeping cousin. She snorted a little in her sleep, but other than that she didn't wake up until the next morning when her alarm went off.

At school, Tatum met up with Isaac who was waiting for her outside. They walked to her locker and talked until Stiles came up to her locker wheezing, clearly out of breath. Isaac looked at him with a slightly concerned expression, but Tatum could only chuckle. She knew why he was out of breath. Looks like his father had been serious about the bike thing.

"How was the ride to school?" Tatum questioned with a smirk.

"It was…hold on, let me catch my breath…" Stiles started before he leaned against another locker and held his hand to his chest for a moment. "It sucked. How else is a bike ride supposed to go?"

"Some people find them quite enjoyable," Isaac added.

Stiles eyed Isaac and shook his head. "You can shut up."

"Is there a reason you decided to grace us with your annoying self this morning?" Tatum asked.

"This." Stiles held out a piece of paper. Tatum smiled as she snatched it from Stiles' hand, but she missed the smirk on his face as she opened it. This wasn't all her contacts. There were only three people on this list. She looked up at him and his stupid smirk. "He never said I had to give them all to you."

"Whatever." Tatum shoved the paper in her locker before she shut it and walked away with Isaac leaving Stiles standing there with his mouth hanging open. That wasn't the reaction he expected at all. He enjoyed their game of cat and mouse and it looked like Isaac was ruining his game.

At lunch, Tatum sat with Lydia. With Jackson, not a school and Allison sitting with Scott and Stiles, that left Tatum to sit with. Tatum was about to take a bite of her chicken sandwich when Isaac waved to her from in line. She waved her hand with the chicken sandwich in it, like a complete idiot. She squeezed her eyes shut when she realized her stupid mistake. Lydia must have noticed because she leaned a bit closer to talk.

"Looks like someone took my advice," Lydia whispered.

"Yeah, thanks for that," Tatum responded.

"It's what friends do, right? Besides, it just means that we get to have triple dates. Me and Jackson. You and Isaac. Allison and Scott. Everyone's all paired up."

"Not everyone." Tatum's eyes flashed over to Stiles who was talking animatedly to Scott, causing Allison to laugh.

"Everyone that matters."

Isaac came and sat down beside Tatum to which Lydia responded, "Aren't you two just adorable."

Tatum blushed and shook her head at Lydia's words. They hadn't even really gone on their first date yet. What if things didn't work out? But Isaac surprised her by grabbing her hand under the table. She turned to look at him to see him smiling at her. She opened her mouth to talk, but nothing came out. Instead, she just smiled as her face continued to redden. After lunch, Isaac had to go see him dad about something in his office, so Tatum walked with Lydia to math. After math, she found herself being dragged into a situation with Stiles and Scott.

"Tater Tot, Scott, Come here," Stiles hissed. Tatum rolled her eyes, but she slowly walked over to her cousin's best friend.

"What?" Tatum questioned.

"It's Scott I need."

"So then I'm going to class…" Tatum moved to walk away when Stiles' hand grabbed her arm, keeping her from walking away.

"No, you're staying here. Just hold one a second." Scott crossed the busy hallway before Stiles maneuvered both Tatum and Scott to look around the corner of the wall to see Sheriff Stilinski standing with their principal. "Tell me what they're saying."

"I'm terrible at lip-reading."

"Not you. Scott. He can do that sort of thing now. You can hear 'em, right?" Scott narrowed his eyes and focused on the adults nearly fifty yards down the hallway before nodding his head.

"And?"

"He wants to curfew the student body," Scott said. Tatum's eyes widened in shock. Maybe she was wrong to doubt. Maybe, but Stiles interrupted her thoughts before she could dwell too long on the matter.

"Unbelievable. My dad's out looking for a rabid animal, while the jerk-off who actually killed the girl is just hangin' out, doing whatever he wants."

"Wait, who do we actually think killed the girl again?" Tatum questioned.

"You gotta keep up on things if you want to be in the know, Taters. Derek. Derek Hale."

"Didn't I let him in last night?" Scott nodded his head and Tatum mouthed the word oh. "Oops."

"Yeah. Oops."

"Well, we have a problem. You can't exactly tell your dad the truth about Derek," Scott added.

"I can do something."

"Like what?" Tatum to wanted to know what he planned on doing. She folded her arms across her chest and raised her chin a bit, waiting for him to continue.

"We're going to find the other half of the body."

"You can leave me out this," Tatum said.

"No, you're coming with us."

"What? Why?"

"Because you're distracted. That's why."

"Distracted? From what?"

Stiles gave Tatum an incredulous glance before he shook his head and walked away. Tatum rolled her eyes and walked toward her locker leaving Scott standing there alone, confused as to what just happened. After school, Tatum was careful to avoid going home with Scott, because she didn't want to get roped into Stiles' plan which involved going to the morgue to check out the dead body. Instead, she chose to walk home with Isaac. She was surprised that he actually agreed to walk with her, but he said it beat staying and watching his dad's swim team practice which she really couldn't argue with. Practice was boring. It was the actual meets that were interesting, but she kept her mouth shut on the matter of swimming as they walked. Surprisingly, they really didn't talk about much as they walked. It probably had something to do with their topic of conversation being family. Neither Tatum nor Isaac really wanted to share too much, so instead they just remained quiet holding hands as they walked. Although, Tatum could feel her hand growing sweaty in his.

When they stopped at her house, she offered to let him come inside to get a glass of water. He started to refuse, but Tatum pulled him by the hand to come inside. Isaac looked rather nervous, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans as they walked inside, but Tatum reassured him that they were the only ones home—which might have made him more nervous. She walked over to the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of water before pouring two tall glasses: one for Isaac and one for herself. Tatum then handed one to Isaac, which he accepted with a quiet thank you. She suggested that they could watch TV for a while, but Isaac insisted that he had to go. Tatum had to admit that he somewhat confused her. He seemed like he wanted to get closer to her, but sometimes he seemed like he was pushing her away. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to think. The only thing she knew was that after the game, she was going to get to spend more time with him, which she was looking forward to.

After Isaac had left, Tatum went upstairs to her room and pulled out her DVD collection she had inherited from her parents. She selected You've Got Mail and put it in her DVD player to watch as she did her homework. A cute quirky comedy and who didn't love Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? The sun was beginning to set as she finished her homework and Meg Ryan's character was soon to find out that it had been Tom Hanks' character all along…and Scott still wasn't home. Tatum shrugged it off and when the movie finished she switched it out for Sleepless in Seattle. She remembered watching these movies with her mother…even though they drove her father insane. Tatum smiled at the memory. About twenty minutes into the movie, Scott poked his head into her room.

"Hey, Tay, wanna go get some ice cream?" Scott asked.

"Hell, yes," Tatum said jumping off her bed and walking to her TV to shut it off because she had lost both of the remotes.

Tatum climbed in the front seat of the car before she saw a suspicious looking lump in the backseat, but Scott had pulled the car into drive before she discovered Stiles hiding under the blanket holding a couple shovels. It was then she knew what she had been roped into…and there would be no ice cream. She muttered the word jerks under her breath and folded her arms across her chest as Scott drove them out toward the Preserves….the old Hale house to be precise. They sat in the dark with the car off as they waited for Derek leave. How the boys managed to get him to leave, Tatum wasn't sure; but when his car was out of sight the boys jumped out of the car with shovels in hand. But Tatum stayed put in the car. There was no way in hell she was getting out. Unless…

"You get your ice cream if you help," Stiles said popping his head in her open window, scaring the crap out of her.

"I hate you," Tatum countered.

"The feeling's mutual."

Tatum sighed loudly before she opened her door, purposely nailing Stiles, causing him to fall to the ground. She then walked over to where Scott was standing as Stiles got back on his feet once again, walking back with two shovels in his hands. He handed Tatum a shovel and the three of them started digging. After they had been digging for about fifteen minutes, Tatum's hands were already beginning to blister so she decided to take a break and sat down on the unkempt lawn.

"That's not helping," Stiles commented as he moved a pile of earth.

"You're not really helping either. It's Scott doing all the work," Tatum quipped.

"Well, this is taking way too long," Scott grunted.

"Just keep going," Stiles offered.

"But what if what's his name comes back?" Tatum asked.

"If Derek comes back, Scott and I run like hell and you stay here as our peace offering."

"How 'bout I just whack you across the head with this shovel and we leave you."

"Guys, your plans suck," Scott said. It was then Scott struck something with his shovel and Stiles told him to stop. The boys then got on their hands and knees and starting moving the dirt with their hands. Tatum peered into the hole. She crinkled her nose when she saw that the boys had found a burlap sack tied with twine. The boys weren't going fast enough at untying the twine so she ran back to the car and pulled the pocket knife her father had given her out of her purse before going back.

"Move over." Tatum pushed the boys out of the way as she started cutting the twine with her knife. When she was done she stayed down in the hole with the boys as Scott moved to uncover it, her heart beating faster and faster. Scott pushed the burlap away and there lay a wolf's head. The three teenagers screamed and jumped backward out of the hole. "Holy shit!"

"What the hell is that?" Stiles questioned. Tatum was too busy to catch her breath to come up with some sort of snarky retort for his question, but Scott managed to give him a straight answer.

"It's a wolf," Scott stated.

"Yeah, I can see that. I thought you said you smelled blood, as in human blood."

"I told you something was different."

"This doesn't make sense."

"None of this makes sense, Stiles," Tatum groaned. "And you're buying me ice cream for the next week to make up for this shit." Tatum picked up her shovel to start moving the dirt back into the hole, but Stiles held up his arm to stop her.

"Hold on a second. You see that flower?" Stiles questioned.

"Flowers aren't going to help you get on my good side, Stiles."

"Not for you, you idiot. I think it's wolfsbane."

"What's that?" Scott asked innocently.

"Dude, you're so unprepared for this." Stiles shook his head before he reached for the plant. He tried to pull it right out, but it was a little more complicated than that. As Stiles worked on the wolfsbane, Tatum stood by Scott until suddenly the thing in the hole was no longer a wolf's head.

"Uh—Stiles." Stiles looked at Scott who was looking into the hole. He walked over and looked in the hole as well.

"Holy…"

"No. Oh, God…"

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Tatum said before whatever was in her stomach began to heave toward her throat. "I take that back, I am going to be sick." She ran a few feet away and hurled the contents of her stomach onto the grass. Inside the hole was the top half of a human torso. Most likely the other half of the body. This was so messed up. What the hell had she gotten herself into?


	7. Keep Calm and Carry On

Tatum's body shook in shock as she leaned against the car in the dark. The only light given off came from the red and blue lights of the sheriff's vehicle. She wasn't sure if she was shaking with fear or anger…hell, maybe even both. It was more than likely. After they found the body, Stiles called his dad while Tatum had continued to puke her guts out from the sight of a dead body.

Originally, Tatum had wanted to just get the hell out of there and then let Scott and Stiles call the cops, but Stiles the so-called crime scene expert reasoned with her that her puke had already contaminated the scene. They would know she was there, so it was better to do it now than later. Otherwise, it looked like they were the ones that had something to hide. While she didn't like the plan, she was at least glad Stiles didn't throw her under the bus. He and Scott could have left, they hadn't really contaminated the scene. There were brief moments when Stiles wasn't always a complete jackass. Brief. Very brief. And few and far between.

Tatum ran her fingers through her hair and slowly exhaled. She had never seen a dead body before. She hadn't even seen her parents' bodies. Her grandmother had insisted on a closed casket, which was completely understandable given the fact they had died in a nasty car accident. But this, this was different. It was something in completely in its own category, which Tatum wasn't sure actually existed. Honestly, her mind was spinning from all the freaky crap that had been happening lately and she was probably on the verge of a mental breakdown. The last thing she needed.

Scott was busy talking to an officer, giving his official statement or whatnot. So that left Tatum alone with Stiles and it seemed like he was done playing nice. She looked over at him as he headed toward the car where Derek Hale was currently being held. Being only a few steps away, Tatum grabbed him by the collar causing him to jerk back. "What the hell?" Stiles hissed slapping her arm away, freeing himself from her grasp.

Her nostrils flared a bit in anger. This was all his fault. He should never have brought them here in the first place. It was always Stiles who got them into trouble and Tatum was going to give him a piece of her mind. "I'm killing you. After he kills us, I'm going to kill you!" Tatum hissed right back at him, getting right in his face, pointing toward the backseat of the car where Derek sat.

Not fazed by her declaration, Stiles just rolled his eyes. "You do realize that's not possible, right?"

Tatum folded her arms across her chest and arched an eyebrow as if daring Stiles to try her. "If Scott can be a werewolf, then I'm pretty damn sure that I can come back to life and kill you again."

"And again, you do realize with that logic, you'd be bringing me back to life again too, right?"

"Yeah, but you'd be dying again so it'd be so worth it."

Stiles took a step back from the seething girl in front of him with his hands in the air in defense. "Whoa, who peed in your Cheerios?"

"You." Tatum glared at him with her arms still folded across her chest, just waiting for some smart-ass retort from him.

Stiles opened his mouth to argue with her but then realized that she was telling the truth. After a moment's pause, he argued, "That was like five years ago and I only did it because Scott bet me I wouldn't actually go through it. He should have known better."

Tatum opened her mouth in disgust as a horrified expression marred her face. "Oh my god. Ew." She then proceeded to continue to freak out. Stiles took that as his opportunity to escape and climb into the front seat of the sheriff's vehicle through the open window How hard would it have been to open the door? Of course, Stiles had to be Stiles. "Shit," she muttered under her breath. "Shit. Shit. Shit."

Scared that the sheriff would spot Stiles in the front seat and she would be guilty by association, Tatum looked over her shoulder for Stiles' father. Thankfully, all the officers seemed to busy processing the crime scene to notice, but that wasn't much of a relief. With Stiles, trouble always seemed to follow. "You're gonna get caught," Tatum hissed.

"No I'm not," Stiles huffed, hanging his upper body out the window. "Not if you quit annoying me."

Tatum rolled her eyes at Stiles, who pulled himself back into the car. She wasn't about to play a part to his shenanigans, so she walked away with her arms folded across her chest. She walked until she came to the steps leading up to the Hale house, before she sat down on them, hugging her knees close to her. All she wanted was some nightmare and Stilinski dragged her into this nightmare. She was so angry at him. Not to mention that she still wanted her ice cream.

Sheriff Stilinski walked out of the house and stopped at the top of the stairs. He noticed Tatum sitting there alone, which concerned him because the last time he saw his son, he was with Tatum. He scanned to see Scott talking to one of the deputies. "Tatum, where's Stiles?" he asked.

"Chatting with Derek Hale," Tatum sighed. She wasn't going to lie to Sheriff Stilinski. Especially not after that little episode of accidentally falling asleep at his house and then subsequently trying to sneak out of his house the next morning.

The sheriff groaned. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered as he quickly descended the stairs and walked over to the cruiser to yank his son out. The look on Stiles' face was priceless. It would have been nice to have some ice cream to enjoy the show that was about to happen, but such was her lot in life.

Stiles was dragged away from the cruiser by his dad until they were both standing in front of Tatum. "There. Stand there," Sheriff Stilinski said angrily. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The teenage Stilinski shrugged his shoulders and made several faces before he responded, "I'm just trying to help. That's all."

Sheriff Stilinski folded his arms across his chest and looked at his son skeptically. "Okay, well how 'bout you help me understand how exactly you came across this...and Tatum will tell me if you're lying."

Tatum's eyes widened. She hadn't anticipated getting dragged into this. Stiles narrowed his eyes at her and his dad told him to knock it off. Tatum chewed her lip as she listened to Stiles' explanation. "We were looking for Scott's inhaler."

The sheriff turned toward Tatum to see if she agreed with Stiles' explanation. Tatum rolled her eyes. "I was told we were going for ice cream and then we ended up here."

Stiles groaned before he shook his head at Tatum. "We explicitly told you that you'd get your ice cream after you helped us."

"Which you didn't tell me until after I was already here."

Looking rather annoyed, Stiles folded his arms across his chest. "We fully intended on keeping our promise."

"Sure. I'll believe that when hell freezes over."

"Don't believe me? I even grabbed my dad's Pinkberry loyalty card." Stiles pulled the card out of his pocket and waved it for Tatum to see. "There's a free one on there. Not that I was going to give it to you, but still, it shows I was telling the truth."

"Give me that," Sheriff Stilinski groaned, swiping his card from his son. "Back to the inhaler, when did Scott drop it here?"

"The other night," Stiles said with a shrug.

"The other night when you were out here looking for the other half of the body?" It was obvious Sheriff Stilinski was setting up a trap for Stiles.

"Yes."

"The night that you told me you were alone and that Scott as wat home?" Sheriff Stilinski arched an eyebrow at his son.

"Yes," Stiles responded quickly. Realizing his mistake, he tried to cover it up. "I mean no. I mean...crap!" Tatum just smiled. Getting his just desserts. Her stomach grumbled and she wanted nothing more than to get her own dessert.

It was clear the sheriff wasn't impressed. He actually looked rather angry at his son. Probably the angriest Tatum had ever seen him. "So, you lied to me?"

Tatum almost cringed. Those words from a parent could easily end in a lifetime sentence, depending on how one played their cards. Stiles clearly didn't know how to play the game because he responded, "That depends on how you define lying."

The sheriff refolded his arms across his chest. "Well, I define it as not telling the truth. How do you define it?"

"Mmmm…" Stiles said thinking over how to respond. Again, he clearly didn't know how to play cards because he said, "reclining your body in a horizontal position." He even made hand motions with it.

Tatum shook her head and chuckled as his father growled at him to get the hell out of there. Sheriff Stilinski then stopped in front of Tatum. "I'm sorry he dragged you into this mess, Tatum."

"I'll live," Tatum sighed as she rested her head in her hands. "I just really wanted some ice cream."

Sheriff Stilinski chuckled. He glanced down at his watch. "Pinkberry is closed by now," he said. He then dug into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a ten dollar bill. Handing it to Tatum along with the free purchase from Pinkberry card, he said, "Get some ice cream on me."

She accepted the money and the card. "Don't you need my official statement or something?"

"Swing by the station before school in the morning and we'll take it then. Deal?"

"Deal." Tatum slipped the money into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt and stood up. She walked over where to Scott stood with Stiles. He must have just finished talking with the deputy. Tatum approached him with her hand in front of her. "Keys," she told her cousin.

Scott dug into his jeans pockets and pulled the keys out before placing them in her hand. "Tay, I'm…"

"Sorry?" Tatum asked him with an arched eyebrow. "Good to know. As penance, you will be riding back home with Stiles." Tatum turned on her heel and walked away, her ponytail swaying as she walked away. She almost nailed the walkaway, but she tripped over a random root sticking out of the ground and tripped. Thankfully, she was close enough to the car that she landed on it.

"Are you okay?" Scott called after her.

She groaned, pushing herself back into a standing position. "I'm fine!" Tatum shouted, without looking back at Scott. She then crawled into the driver's seat, adjusted the mirrors, started the car, made sure the lights were on, and then drove away from her first crime scene.

Tatum barely had barely made it in the house with her grocery bag of two pints of Ben & Jerry's when her phone began to ring. She groaned as she swung the bag onto the counter before she pulled her phone out of her pocket. Dobby was calling. Tatum rolled her eyes and ignored the call. She set her phone on the counter and moved back to her bag. She put one pint in the freezer and opened the other. Her phone was still buzzing. Stiles was continuously calling her. Tatum shook her head. There was one thing she knew about Stiles, he was annoying enough to keep calling her until she actually answered. So, she picked up her phone.

"What the hell do you want now?" she hissed venomously into the phone.

"Is Scott home?" Stiles asked.

Something about his tone told her that he was worried. "I thought he was with you," Tatum answered.

"He was. He was."

Even though she knew Stiles couldn't see her, Tatum rolled her eyes. "But?"

"Long story short, he ran away and I'm pretty sure he was wolfed-out."

Tatum's eyes widened. "You lost him? How do you lose him?" she shouted at Stiles. She could really relate to divorced parents in a custody dispute at that moment. Tatum ran her fingers through her hair. "I'll go double check upstairs, but if he's not there, I'm killing you, Stiles." She exited the kitchen and made her way upstairs.

Stiles sighed. "You've now threatened my life twice tonight. I'm pretty sure my dad should put me in protective custody."

"That would involve him not killing you first," Tatum retorted as she opened the door to Scott's bedroom. She glanced around the room. "Scott's not here, Stiles."

"Shit," Stiles cursed. "All right, I'm gonna call the dispatcher down at the station."

Tatum rolled her eyes. "And ask them what exactly? If they've seen anything mad and hairy running around the castle lately?"

Stiles groaned. "Don't compare Scott to Hagrid. Werewolves and giants are two completely different creatures. If you're gonna make a Harry Potter reference, at least compare Scott to Professor Lupin. Both werewolves. Got it?"

"Just find him, Stiles. I'm getting really tired of this." With that Tatum hung up her phone and sat down on Scott's bed. She rubbed her hands over her face before she fell backward onto her cousin's pillows. Life in Beacon Hills was not what she had expected. She missed her small-town Minnesota life. It certainly hadn't been this complicated.

Remembering that she had left her ice cream out downstairs, Tatum quickly ran to retrieve it. It was a bit of a soupy mess. Either way, chocolate ice cream was chocolate ice cream. So, she lapped it up with her tongue. She then returned to Scott's bedroom, to wait for him like an overprotective mother.

Tatum wasn't sure how long she waited in Scott's room. It seemed like forever that she sat there in the darkness. She sat in the darkness because she didn't want Scott to know that she was in there, until she wanted him to know she was in there. But boy, it was borning. She had finished her pint of ice cream and her stomach certainly wasn't thanking her for doing so. There was really nothing else to do except just to sit there and wait. She hadn't thought this through very well.

Eventually, Scott's bedroom window slid open. A shadow slipped into the room and quietly closed the window behind him. Then, in her best Mrs. Weasley impression, Tatum screeched, "Where have you been?" Scott shouted and tripped over the end of his bed, falling to the floor. Tatum turned on the light and continued her monologue. "Beds empty! No note! Car gone! You could have died! You could have been seen!"

Scott groaned as he pushed himself up from the floor. Once he was in a standing position, he looked at his cousin who stood there with her arms folded across her chest and an unamused expression on her face. Scott looked at her sheepishly. "As many times as I've seen that movie with you, I'm not sure what comes next."

But Tatum wasn't to be swayed. "Seriously, where have you been, Scott?"

Scott's expression hardened. "Whoa, back off, Tay. You're not my mom."

"You're right, I'm not your mom. I'm the person you'd better suck up to, otherwise, I'm telling your mom."

"Tay," Scott groaned. "I'm here. I'm fine. That's all that matters."

"All that matters? You drag me out to go dig up a dead body in the middle of the night, you run away from Stiles who wouldn't stop calling me 'til I answered, only to find that you wolfed-out and disappear for hours. And all I need to know is that you're fine? I don't think so. You'd better start talking."

"Get out!" Scott ordered Tatum, pointing toward his bedroom door.

Tatum wanted to shout back make me, but there was a look in Scott's eyes that she didn't recognize. "Fine," she told him. "But when you're done PMSing, you have some 'splaining to do."

With that, Tatum walked out of her cousin's room. He slammed the door shut behind her. Tatum walked to her own bedroom and flopped onto her bed. She reached for Perry the Platypus and snuggled him close. She was pretty sure that this was her first actual fight with Scott and she didn't enjoy it. No, right now she wanted to call her mom and talk to her about it. But she couldn't do that. So, instead, she cried herself to sleep more because she missed her mom than because of her fight with Scott.

The next morning, Tatum got up early and walked to school. She avoided her cousin and Stiles at all costs. Right now, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Despite having to walk, Tatum still got to school rather early. She glanced around at the sea of teenagers already beginning to assemble and she realized that she didn't really belong to any of the groups. For the most part, she had hung out with Scott and Stiles. Then recently, she spent some time with Lydia and Allison, suddenly skyrocketing her to the popular crowd. People knew her by something other than the new kid, but they didn't really know her. So, instead of joining a group, Tatum went and sat beneath a tree.

Tatum pulled out her copy of Pride and Prejudice and began to read. She had made it no more than a few pages when a voice from above said, "Is this tree taken?"

She looked up to find Isaac standing there. "There might be room for two," Tatum said.

Isaac nodded his head and took a seat on the grass beside her. Tatum sighed and went back to reading her book. Isaac glanced over her shoulder and squinted at the words. They were tiny. "What are you reading?" he asked her.

Tatum looked at Isaac over her shoulder before she turned the book cover toward him. "It was my mom's favorite book," she offered. "This was her copy-her notes in the margins. I don't always understand what they're saying, but my mom's notes are better than CliffsNotes any day."

"You miss her." It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

"Every day," Tatum said hanging her head. She sighed and asked, "You miss your mom?"

At first, he seemed a little take aback by her words. But he responded, "Every day."

Tatum rested her head against Isaac's shoulder. Her action surprised him, but he let her stay there, resting her head. "Does it get any easier?" she asked, her voice cracking.

Isaac sighed and rested his head on top of hers. "Some days yes, some days no." He then wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. While they weren't all that far into their relationship, he knew what she was feeling. He knew what he wanted when he had one of those days, and so he gave it to her. He was glad Tatum didn't move and just allowed him to hold her. They just sat there having a quiet moment.

After a few minutes of silence, Isaac asked, "So, are you coming to the game tonight? And then a go for after?"

"I don't know," Tatum sighed.

Isaac looked at her curiously. "What's that supposed to mean? I thought you wanted to go."

"I'm fighting with Scott and Stiles right now and I don't know I wanna go because I know they're gonna be at the game and then Scott later at the thing afterward."

"I'll be there."

"You're the only reason I'm even thinking about going." Tatum brushed her fingers against Isaac's arm that was holding her.

"Maybe this will change your mind," Isaac said, releasing her. At first, Tatum thought she had done something wrong, but instead of standing up and walking away, he grabbed his backpack and pulled it closer to him. He unzipped it and dug something out-a sweatshirt. He put it on Tatum's lap.

Tatum looked at him curiously before opened the sweatshirt up. It was his lacrosse sweatshirt that had his last name and number on it. "It's huge," Tatum said.

That made Isaac chuckle. "I was hoping that maybe you'd want to wear it to the game tonight. I mean you don't have to, but I was kinda hoping…" He let his voice trail off.

Biting down her bottom lip, Tatum continued to look at the sweatshirt. She knew what this usually meant, but she wanted to be sure Isaac meant it that way. "Doesn't this usually mean we're a couple or something?"

"Or something," Isaac said with a shrug.

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend, Isaac Lahey?"

Isaac flashed her a look. "I thought that was pretty obvious."

Tatum giggled. "Oh, fine. You've managed to convince me."

"About what? Being my girlfriend? The game? Or afterward?"

Tatum leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "Looks like you're going to have to wait and find out." She laughed and then quickly pulled away from him, pushing him back against the tree. She stood up and brushed the grass from her jeans.

"Tatum," Isaac groaned. "Not fair. So not fair."

She smirked at him before she looked over her shoulder and then back at Isaac. "Is it just me or is it rather chilly this morning?" Tatum flashed him a grin before she slid his sweatshirt over her head. It was rather large on her, but she didn't really care because the huge grin on Isaac's face made it worth it. She pushed up the sleeves and then turned her back toward him. "How does it look on me?"

"Better than it does on me," Isaac responded, admiring Tatum in his sweatshirt.

She held her hand out toward him. "Walk me to class?" He quickly reached out and grabbed her hand. Hand in hand, they walked into school and Tatum thought that maybe, just maybe some moments of high school were worth it...even when one is fighting with their cousin and cousin's best friend.

Tatum decided to go to the game for Isaac. Not because she wanted to see Scott or Stiles play. Plus, Aunt Melissa would have been suspicious if she said she didn't want to go, especially after really wanting to go and Tatum didn't really want to explain the Scott situation to her.

"So, which one is Isaac?" Aunt Melissa asked as they sat down on the bleachers.

"Uhhh-" Tatum said trying to look at the back of Isaac's sweatshirt she was wearing, over several layers of clothing for warmth. Good thing it was big. "Whatever number my back says." She turned her back toward her aunt.

Melissa arched an eyebrow and shook her head. "You don't know your own boyfriend's number?"

"Hey! He only gave it to me this morning."

Melissa chuckled and looked onto the field for #14. She found him just as he was taking his mask off to get a drink of water. She nodded her head, clearly somewhat impressed. "He's cute," Melissa whispered to Tatum.

"I know," Tatum whispered back.

"So, when do I get to meet him? You know, to make sure that he's good enough for you."

Tatum chuckled and nudged her aunt. "Enough about me. The game's about to start. You don't wanna miss Scott's first time starting, do you?"

"Ooh. Right." Melissa sat rather rigidly, cupping her hands together with her attention on the field. "Looks like Scott isn't the only one starting." Melissa elbowed Tatum when she saw #14 on the field as well. She then chuckled when she saw the bench. "Poor Stiles."

"Oh yeah, poor Stiles," Tatum mocked. "I'm sure he earned his spot on the bench."

"Play nice."

"Hey, it's not anything I wouldn't say to his face."

"That's what scares me."

The game started. Things seemed to be going all right. Well, all right if you excluded the fact that Jackson Whittemore, Scott's own teammate seemed to have a hit out on him. Jackson was coming into contact more with Scott that the other team. Jackson scored the first goal after knocking Scott to the ground before he could get the ball.

"What an ass," Melissa muttered.

"You should see him at school," Tatum whispered back in response.

A high-pitched cheer started behind Tatum. She looked a few rows behind her were Lydia Martin with Allison Argent. They were standing together cheering, holding a sign that said "We Luv U Jackson" and it was obvious Scott saw it and saw Allison standing beneath it. That worried Tatum because she wasn't sure Scott could control the anger that was bound to build up. She might be mad at her cousin, but she could still be worried about him.

But Scott kept playing. Jackson called a huddle for all the other players on the field...but Scott. Isaac kept glancing and pointing to Scott, but Jackson smacked his helmet and that put an end to whatever Isaac was saying. Tatum made a mental note to ask Isaac later what they were talking about.

The game continued on. It wasn't until Beacon Hills was losing 3-5, that Scott suddenly stepped up his game. It was as if something had taken over him-which was probably accurate. Scott went from not even having touched the ball to scoring a point in one play. Melissa and Tatum jumped to their feet and started screaming. Things were getting interesting and Tatum forgot her anger toward Scott and started to cheer for him.

"Go, Scott! Go, Isaac!" she cheered.

Stiles must have heard her because he turned around on the bench and made a what about me gesture, but Tatum ignored him. Coach then started calling for everyone to pass to Scott. From his posture, it was clear that Jackson didn't like that. But the game continued.

An opposing player had the ball, but he stopped when he saw Scott. Tatum caught a glimpse of Scott's glowing eyes. Shit. Shit. Shit. Stiles turned back toward her, he must have been thinking the same thing because he looked rather apprehensive. The other team then passed Scott the ball and he scored again. The ball ripped right through the net of the goalie's lacrosse stick. Melissa cheered and shook Tatum to cheer along with her. But Tatum was nervous.

Scott needed to get a grip on himself, otherwise, he could lose it, in front of all these people. Maybe she shouldn't have pressed Scott last night and ignored him today. Stiles had texted her practically every hour asking her to tell Scott to stay home, but he hadn't listened. She was beginning to grow more and more nervous. There were only 39 seconds on the clock, but a lot could happen in 39 seconds. Although, Stiles currently seemed more concerned about cheering than keeping an eye on Scott. So, maybe she was just overreacting.

The final play of the game, Scott suddenly stopped in front of the goal and just stood there for several seconds doing nothing. Stiles looked back at her. "Oh shit," Tatum murmured. She could hear slight growls. Not good. Not good at all. The clock was counting down. Time was almost out.

Tatum heard Isaac yell for Scott to shoot the ball. He did. The ball soared into the net at the buzzer. Beacon Hills fans went wild and began to storm the field. Aunt Melissa drags Tatum along with her. They looked around for Scott, but they run into Isaac first. He took off his mask and wrapped an arm around Tatum. "I'm glad you came," Isaac said with a smile. Tatum responded with an eye roll.

"You must be Isaac," Melissa extending her hand. "I'm Tatum's, Aunt Melissa. If you hurt her, I know several ways to kill you and make it look like you died of natural causes."

Isaac's eyes widened.

"She's kidding," Tatum laughed. "Kind of…"

Isaac shook Melissa's hand and the two began to converse, but Tatum wasn't paying attention. She was too busy looking for her cousin. "Tay...Tay...Tay!" Melissa's shouted.

Tatum shook her head and furrowed her brow. "Have you seen, Scott?" she asked Isaac.

Isaac shrugged. "He probably had to take a piss."

"On that note, I'll leave you two alone," Melissa said. "Isaac, it was nice to meet you. You'll have to come over for dinner one night...and by dinner, I mean delivery pizza."

Isaac nodded his head in agreement as Melissa left them. He moved his arms so that they were wrapped around Tatum's waist. He drew her in close. "So, how about that redo?" he asked.

"A redo?" Tatum responded coyly. For a moment, she forgot about Scott. There weren't any blood-curdling screams, so he hadn't attacked anyone. So could afford one moment...with her boyfriend. She rested her mittened-hands on his arms. "Here?" she asked.

"Would you prefer somewhere else?" Isaac asked.

"No, here's fine," she responded lightly.

She saw Isaac smile before he started to lean in. She closed her eyes and reached up for his kiss. When hand suddenly wrapped around her arm and pulled her away from Isaac. Tatum's eyes flung open. It was Stiles. Again.

"What the hell!" Isaac and Tatum hissed in unison.

"I'm really sorry to have to do this...again...well, kinda...not really. But Tater Tot and I have urgent business to attend to-life or death matters. But I will make it up to you-I swear. I mean, I won't be personally making out with you or anything but…"

"Stiles!" Tatum shouted throwing her head back.

"Right," Stiles mused for a moment before he pulled Tatum along by the arm he was still holding onto.

Tatum looked over her shoulder and gave Isaac a sad puppy-dog look before she mouthed the word sorry to him. But it was probably for the best Stiles had interrupted because Tatum watched as Coach Lahey approached his son. Tatum found it slightly odd that Isaac wouldn't make eye contact with his dad, but she didn't say anything about it. She just turned back toward Stiles.

"Do you have something against me being happy?" Tatum hissed.

"Happy? No. Making out with Isaac? Yes," Stiles responded.

Tatum growled at him as she managed to pull her arm away from Stiles. "He's probably going to think there's something going on with you and me."

Stiles' face soured. "Gross. That's disgusting. I would never..." He stopped himself before finishing his sentence. Tatum arched an eyebrow at him, but he didn't say anything. He just opened the door to the boys' locker room and gestured for her to go in. She shook her head no, but Stiles just reached for her arm and pulled her inside anyway.

"I better not get in trouble for this," Tatum growled.

Stiles mimicked her in a high-pitched voice. Tatum pushed him to shut him up. He came to a sudden stop and Tatum ran into him. She was about to yell at him when he pushed her into an equipment storeroom. It was then that she heard a voice that certainly didn't belong to a boy. The voice belonged to Allison Argent...and she was talking to Scott.

From inside the equipment storeroom, they watched as Scott leaned in for the kiss. He got it and he started making out with Allison, in the boys' locker room. "Sure, you don't stop him," Tatum whispered. "But me you stop. Twice."

"Sh!" Stiles shushed her. Tatum rolled her eyes.

"You owe me."

"A kiss? I mean, I guess I could do that…" Tatum elbowed him hard, which caused him to grunt and cause Allison and Scott to break apart. "I'll take that as a no…"

"A big, fat no."

Stiles just shrugged before gesturing to himself. "You couldn't handle this anyway."

Tatum rolled her eyes. "Nor would I want to."

They watched as Allison quickly reached up to peck one last kiss on Scott's lips before she left the locker room. Although, she did make sure to say high to Stiles and Tatum before exiting. Tatum knew she was going to have to come up with some sort of explanation for the next time she saw Allison, but she hoped she wouldn't have to.

Tatum and Stiles escaped the equipment room and Scott was grinning from ear to ear. He didn't even seem angry or upset to see his best friend and cousin there, interrupting the best moment of his life. "I kissed her," Scott said rather dreamily.

"We saw," Tatum chuckled.

"She kissed me," Scott chuckled.

"Yup, we saw that too," Stiles added. Scott just stood there with a stupid grin on his face. "That's pretty good, huh?"

Scott grinned.

"Oh, he's got it bad," Tatum giggled.

"No, no, it's a good thing. I don't know how I did it, but I heard her voice, and I controlled it. I pulled it back."

"It being-your wolf side?"

Scott nodded his head. "Maybe I can do this. Maybe it's not that bad."

"Well, I'm about to burst your bubble then," Stiles said.

"What?" Scott asked in confusion.

"Oh-kay then. I'll keep it simple."

"That's probably for the best," Tatum chuckled.

Stiles rolled his eyes before he continued. "Medical examiner determines killer of girl to be animal, not human. Derek human, not animal. Derek let out of jail."

Scott stared blankly ahead for a moment. Tatum grabbed a water bottle that was just sitting there and she squeezed it, dousing Scott with water. He coughed a little, blinked several times, and then responded appropriately. "Are you kidding?" he hissed.

Stiles shook his head. "No, and here's the bigger kick in the ass. My dad I.D.'d the girl-both halves. Her name was Laura Hale."

"Hale?" Tatum and Scott hissed simultaneously

"Derek's sister," Stiles said folding his arms across his chest.

And suddenly, high school got complicated again. To think, just minutes before the biggest concern on her mind had been kissing Isaac and now she was smacked again by reality. Tatum wasn't in Minnesota anymore.

Author's Note: So...that happened. It's been so long since I wrote Tatum. I'm sorry if it sucked, but it's the best I could do after being blocked for a year! haha. Also, I will fully confess to any tense jumping here-I did edit it, but I can't catch everything. I wrote this after my Divergent fic, which I decided to write in the same tense as the author...which isn't my usual tense. So, we have this. haha. Thanks to everyone who read! Means a lot! :)


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